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LONDON CHURCHES

It OF THE XVII mW XVIU th CF.NTVRIES JO

WITH:ILLVSTRATED

HISTORICALACCOYNTS

CEORCE.H.BIRCH

F.S.A.

'LONDON=PVBLISHEDBY:B-.T:BATSFORD 1
AT94:HIGH:H0LB0RN:AD:MDCCCXCV1,

LONDON CHURCHES

OF THE

XVIIth and XVIIIth CENTURIES.

A SELECTION OF THE MOST REMARKABLE ECCLESIASTICAL BUILDINGS, INCLUDING
ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, ERECTED WITHIN AND AROUND THE
ANCIENT CITY WALLS BETWEEN THE YEARS 1630
AND 1730, FROM THE DESIGNS OF

INIGO JONES,

SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN,

NICHOLAS HAWKSMOOR, and JAMES GIBBS.

A Series of Sixty-four Plates, and numerous other Illustrations.

WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS

GEORGE H. (BIRCH) F.S.A.

LONDON: B. T. BATSFORD, 94, HIGH HOLBORN.

1896.

CHISWICK PRESS : — CHARLES WH1TTINGHAM AND

TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON.

LIST

OF SUBSCRIBERS.

The Hon. Percy Allsopp.

The Astor Library, New York, U.S.A.

The Art Library, South Kensington Museum.

The Society of Antiquaries, London.

The Architectural Association, London.

The Architectural Association, Birmingham.

The Architectural Book Club Zingari, London.

A. S. P. Book Club, London.

Adam, P., Esq., Kidderminster.

Adams, John G., Esq., Edinburgh.

Agutter, T. C., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., New Brampton.
Aickman, W. A., Esq., London.

Alison, James P., Esq., Hawick, N.B.

Aldwinckle, T. W., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Allen, Mr. E. G., London.

Allen, E. J. Milner, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.
Anderson, John, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Annan, James, Esq., London.

Antrobus, The Rev. Frederick, London.

Arber, W. H., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Aspen, W. Valentyne, Esq., London.

Atkinson, R. Frank, Esq., Liverpool.

Sir Walter Besant.

Sir Arthur Blomfield, A.R.A., F.S.A.

The Battersea Public Library.

The Birmingham Public Library.

The Boston Public Library, U.S.A.

The Boston Athenaeum, U.S.A.

The British Architectural Book Club, London.
Bacon, Nicholas H., Esq., Norwich.

Baker, Frank, Esq., Canterbury.

Baillie, J. T., Esq., Edinburgh.

Barclay, Messrs. H. and D., Glasgow.

Bateman and Bateman, Messrs., Birmingham.

Barrow, E. R., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Beningfield, Thomas F., Esq., London.

Begg, John, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Belcher, John, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Bevan, The Rev. C. M., M.A., London.

Bevan, A. T., Esq., Chevening.

Bevan, The Rev. Ernest C., London.

Bevan, Alfred H., Esq., London.

Bevan, F. L., Esq., London.

Bertram, H., Esq., London.

Bentley, J. F., Esq., London.

Bedford, Francis W., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Leeds.

Bidlake, W. H., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Birmingham.

Binyon, Brightwen, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Ipswich.

Birch, Charles, Esq., Highbury.

Birchall, E., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Leeds.

Blanc, Hippolyte J., Esq., F.S.A. Scot., A.R.S.A., Edin¬
burgh.

Blomfield, R. T., Esq., London.

Blashill, T., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., F.S.I., London.

Bolton, Albert J., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Bolton, W., Esq., Croydon.

Bolton, Arthur T., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Boucneau, Messrs. A., and Sons, London.

Boyes, H. C., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Briggs, R. A., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Brown, W. E. F., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Browne, G. Washington, Esq., F.S.A. Scot., A.R.S.A..
Edinburgh.

Brydon, J. M., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Brewill and Bailey, Messrs., Nottingham.

Brierley, Walter H., Esq., York.

Brooks, James, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Bristowe, Fredk. E., Esq., London.

Brooker, J. W., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Brown, W. Talbot, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Wellingborough.
Bumpus, Messrs. J. and E., London.

Bumpus, Messrs. T. and J., London.

Bumpus, Mr. T. B., London.

Burnet, Son, and Campbell, Messrs., Glasgow.
Burmester, J. W. Stanley, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

The Right Hon. the Earl of Carlisle.

The Right Hon. Lord Edward Pelham Clinton, K.C.B.
Sir Walter Corbet, Bart.

The Worshipful Company of Carpenters.

The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers.

The Cardiff Public Library.

The Chelsea Public Library.

The Cincinnati Public Library, U.S.A.

The Constitutional Club, London.

The Cornell University, New York, U.S.A.

Cameron, R. M., Esq., Edinburgh.

Campbell, John, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Bombay.

Cassels, W. R., Esq., London.

Capper, S. Henbest, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Edinburgh.
Catling, Frank, Esq., London.

Caroe, W. D., Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., London.
Chevalier, Nicholas, Esq., London.

Chipchase, J. Wortley, Esq., London.

Champneys, Basil E., Esq., London.

Cheney, George, Esq., F.S.A., London.

Chambers, Francis, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Christian, Ewan, Esq., F.R.I.B.A. (the late), London.
Clarice and Hodgson, Messrs., Leicester:

Clay, F., Esq., London.

Clarke, Somers, Esq., F.S.A., London.

Collins and Godfrey, Messrs., Tewkesbury.

Colman, Gerald C., Esq., London.

Conder, Josiah, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Tokyo, Japan.
Collcutt, T. E., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Combridge, Messrs. A. J., and Co., London.

Cooper, W. White, Esq., Grahamstown, S. Africa.

Cooper, Edward Ernest, Esq., London.

Cooper, T. E., Esq., Scarborough.

Cornish, Mr. J. E., Manchester.

Cox, Mr. E. T., London.

Crace, J. D., Esq., London.

Crawford, A. Hunter, Esq., Edinburgh.

Crompton, Paul, Esq., London.

Crompton, W. E. Vernon, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Wigan.
Crosby, Edward, Esq., Kingston-on-Thames.

Cross, A. W. S., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Crouch and Butler, Messrs., Birmingham.

Crowther, Joseph, Esq., Huddersfield.

Cullen, Alex., Esq., F.S.A. Scot., Motherwell.

Cummings, E. S., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

The Very Rev. the Dean of St. Paul’s.

The Worshipful Company of Drapers.

Davis and Cooper, Messrs., London.

Dawson, The Rev. W., Loughton.

Dawson, W. Bruce, Esq., London.

Dawson, Henry, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Darlington, The Rev. John, London.

Dewick, The Rev. E. S., M.A., F.S.A., London.

Denny, Edward M., Esq., London.

Deas, Frank, Esq., Edinburgh.

Dod, James, Esq., Liverpool.

Doubleday, W., Esq., Birmingham.

Dovaston, J., Esq., Oswestry.

Dove Bros., Messrs., London. (3 copies.)

Downing, Miss, Birmingham.

Downing, Mr. W., Birmingham.

Doyle, J. Francis, Esq., Liverpool.

Dunham, Charles B., Esq., Boston, U.S.A.

Dunn, John, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Dunn, J. B., Esq., Edinburgh.

The Edinburgh Public Library.

The Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art.

The Edinburgh School of Applied Art.

Edis, R. W., Esq., F.S.A. , F.R.I.B.A., London.

Eiloart, Fredk. E., Esq., London.

Elsley, Thomas, Esq., London. (2 copies.)

The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. (2 copies.)
The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Fairley, J. McLellan, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Edinburgh.
Field, Horace, Esq., London.

Feilding, P. H., Esq., London.

Fletcher, Professor Banister, F.R.I.B.A., London.
F'lorence, H. L., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Flint, Ernest, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Flockhart, W., Esq., London.

Fox, Edwin, Esq., London.

Franklin, Mr., Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Fraser, J. B., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Leeds.

Frost, Charles S., Esq., Chicago, U.S.A.

Freeman, P. B., Esq., Southgate.

The Guildhall Library.

Gardner, J. E., Esq., F.S.A., London.

Gardner, J. Staricie, Esq., London.

Garner, Thomas, Esq., London.

George and Peto, Messrs., London.

Gilbertson, The Rev. Lewis, M.A., London.

Gill, Frederick, Esq., London.

Gibson and Russell, Messrs., London.

Gladding, A., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Cardiff.

Glover, Rudolph G., Esq., F.S.A., London.

Goldie, E., Esq., London.

Goddard, R. W. K., Esq., London.

Gosling, G. Bruce, Esq., Guildford.

Goldsmith, F. T. W., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Gotch, J. Alfred, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., Kettering.

Grant, J. L., Esq., Manchester.

Grayson and Ould, Messrs., Liverpool.

Green, Arthur, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Greet, Philip Ben, Esq., Old Charlton.

Gregory, Herbert E., Esq., Hurst Green.

Grimshire, J., ,Esq., London.

The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.

Hall, A., Esq., Leicester.

Hall, Lawrence K., Esq., London.

Hall, W. Carby, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Leeds.

Hadfield, C., Esq., F. R. I.B.A., Sheffield.

Harben, H. A., Esq., F.S.A., London.

Hames, G. H., Esq., London.

Harris, Thomas, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Haslehurst, E., Esq., London.

Hazard, G. L., Esq.. Merton.

Hems, Harry, Esq., Exeter.

Henderson, A. E., Esq., London.

Henderson, A. J., Esq., Thames Ditton.

Henderson, George, Esq., Edinburgh.

Henderson, P. L., Esq., Edinburgh.

Hennings, A. W., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Henman, C., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Henman, W., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Birmingham.

Henry, J. M„ F.sq., Edinburgh.

Henry, Mr. T., Toronto, Canada.

Herbert, Arthur, Esq., Whyteleafe.

Heward, Stephen A., Esq., Toronto, Canada.

Hicks, A. Braxton, Esq., London.

Hicks, Martin, and Drysdale, Messrs., London.
Higham-Hodge, Percy F., Esq., London.

Highton, George, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Bedford.

Hindley, C. A., Esq., London.

Hodson, Laurence W., Esq., Wolverhampton.

Howgate, W. Church, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.
Howard, A., Esq., Brentford.

Howell, Albert, Esq., London.

Hudson and Kearns, Messrs., London.

Hulbert, Maurice C., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Ealing.

Hulme, Fredk., Esq., Liverpool.

Hunt, Fredk. W., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Hunter, Percy, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Hunter, F. C., Esq., London.

I’Anson, E. B., Esq., M.A., F.R.I.B.A., London. (2 copies.)
Ingram, The Rev. Canon, M.A., London.

Jackson, T. G., Esq., A.R.A., London.

Jackson, Messrs. G., and Son, London.

Jacob, B. J., Esq., New Cross.

Jekyll, Lieut-Col. H., Godaiming.

Johnson, W. B., Esq., Altrincham.

Jones, W. Campbell, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Jowers, Alfred, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

The Kensington Public Library.

Kay, J., Esq., Poulton-le-Fylde.

Kendrick, T., Esq., Birmingham.

Kennedy, D. W., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Kenyon, George, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Iveppie, John, Esq., Glasgow.

Kerr, H. F., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Edinburgh.

Kersey, A. H., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

King, V. H., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Kinross, John, Esq., A.R.S.A., Edinburgh.

Kitson, Sydney D., Esq., London.

Sir James Clarke Lawrence, Bart.

The Leeds Public Library.

The Liverpool Public Library.

The Leicester Society of Architects.

The Literary and Philosophical Society, Newcastle
on-Tyne.

Lane, Mrs. C. T., Petersfield.

Latham, Miss Marion, Dulwich.

Lee, Sydney W., Esq., F.R.I.B A., London.

Lever, W. H., Esq., London.

Lemere, Bedford, Esq., London.

Lewis, W. H., Esq., Cardiff.

Little, Robert, Esq., Kirkcaldy.

Lindsay, J. A., Esq., Edinburgh.

Lloyd, Harry, Esq., London.

Lloyd, W. Hawley, Esq., Birmingham.

Lockwood, T. M., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Chester.

Loftie, The Rev. W. J., F.S.A., London.

Longden, H., Esq., London.

Lord, H., Esq., F.R.I.B. A., Manchester.

Lorimer, R. S., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Edinburgh.

Lucas, W. L., Esq., London.

Lucas, Thomas G., Esq., Hitchin.

Luscombe, Edwin, Esq., Exeter.

The Worshipful Company of Mercers.

The Manchester Free Reference Library.

The Mitchell Library, Glasgow.

The Manchester Society of Architects.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston,
U.S.A.

McBean, David, Esq., Glasgow. aaAHom]

McConnal, H. H., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Walsall.

Macintosh, C. R., Esq., Glasgow.

Macartney, Lieut.-Col. M. J., London.

Macartney, Mervyn E., Esq., London.

Mackintosh, Alex., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., New York, U.S.A.
Macnaughten, Alex. W., Esq., Edinburgh.

Mallows, C. E., Esq., London.

Marks, Alfred, Esq., London.

Marshall, W. C., Esq., London.

Marshall, E. W., Esq., London.

Marston, Edward, Esq., London.

Marwick, Thomas P., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Edinburgh.
Maxwell, F. W., Esq., Manchester.

Mayor, Ciias. K., Esq., Manchester.

Melville, Mullen, and Slade, Messrs., London.
Micklethwaite, J. F., Esq., F.S.A., London.

Miller, W. L., Esq., Berwick-on-Tweed.

Mills, A. W., Esq., London.

Mitchell, Sydney, Esq., Edinburgh.

Mitchell- Withers, J. B., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Sheffield.
Monro, W. Ernest, Esq., London.

Moore, Theo., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Moring, Alex., Esq., London.

Morison and Co., Messrs., Edinburgh.

Morris, J., Esq., London.

Morris, Percy, Esq., Blackheath.

Mountford, E. W., Esq., F.R.I.B. A., London.

Muntzer, Fredk., Esq., London.

Murray, John, Esq., Edinburgh.'

Murray, John, Esq., Kirkcaldy.

His Grace the Duke of Newcastle.

The Newcastle Public Library.

The Nineteenth Century Book Club, London.

The Nottingham Municipal School of Science and Art.
The Nottingham Architectural Society.

Nash, Edward, Esq., F.S.A., London.

Nevill, Ralph, Esq., F.S.A., London.

Neve, W. West, Esq., London.

Niven and Wigglesworth, Messrs., London.

Norman, Philip, Esq., F.S.A., London.

The Oldham Public Library.

Oakey, Herbert, Esq., Streatham.

O’ Byrne, Mr. James, Liverpool.

Oldham, F. H., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Manchester.

Oliver, Andrew, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Oswell, A. E. Lloyd, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Shrewsbury.
Owen, William, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Grappenhall.

John Pound, Esq., Alderman and Sheriff of the City of
London.

Parry, S. Gambier, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Paterson, A. N., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Glasgow.

Palmer, The Rev. Francis, M.A., London.

Paul, Messrs. Kegan, and Co., London.

Pechell, Mortimer J., Esq., London.

Pearce, Edward A., Esq., London.

Pearson, J. L., Esq., R.A., F.S.A., London.

Pearson, G., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Pearson, Messrs. J. R. and E. E., Edinburgh.

Perry, J. Tavenor, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Petch, W., Esq., Sydenham.

Peters, C. H., Esq., Holland.

Petter, F. W., Esq., M.S.A., Barnstaple.

Phillips, Henry D., Esq., London.

Pilkington, E. M. M. S., Esq., B.A., London.

Pite, William A., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.
Pitts-Tucker, C. H., Esq., Barnstaple.

Plummer, A. B., Esq., F.R.I.B. A., Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Polley and Co., Messrs., Boston, U.S.A.

Potts, W. E., Esq., Bolton.

Preston, R. Bassnett, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Manchester.
Price, Francis E., Esq., Clifton.

Prentice, A. N., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Sir B. W. Richardson, M.D., F.R.S.

H. C. Richards, Esq., M.P.

Reading, G. P., Esq., London.

Rhind, James, Esq., Liverpool.

Rich, F. W., Esq., Newcastle-on-Tyne.

Rising, H. Whiteman, Esq., London.

Rivington, C. R., Esq., F.S.A., London.

Robson, E. R., Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., London.
Robertson, W. W., Esq., Edinburgh.

Robertson, David, Esq., A.R.S.A., Edinburgh.

Rose, Henry, Esq., London.

Royle and Bennett, Messrs., Manchester.

Runtz, Ernest A., Esq., London.

The Worshipful Company of Saddlers.

The Worshipful Company of Salters.

The Worshipful Company of Skinners.

The Salisbury Clerical Library.

The St. George’s, Hanover Square, Public Library,
London.

The Sion College Public Library.

The Shoreditch Public Libraries, London. (2 copies.)
The Sheffield Society of Architects.

Sachs, E. O., Esq., London.

Sankey, J. Gibbons, Esq., Manchester.

Sawday, A. E., Esq., F.R.I.B. A., London.

Schultz, R. W., Esq., London.

Scott, And. R., Esq., Edinburgh.

Scott, Frank, Esq., Johannesberg, S. Africa.

Scott, John, Jun., Esq., London.

Scott, J. Oldred, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., Oxted.
Scribner’s Sons, Messrs., New York, U.S.A.

Seale, Gilbert, Esq., London.

See, Milton, Esq., New York, U.S.A.

Seth-Smith, W. H., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Sharp, A. D., Esq., London.

Sheppard, Lewis, Esq., Worcester.

Sherrin, George, Esq., A.R. I.B.A., London.

Shaw, R. Norman, Esq., R.A., London.

Shuffrey, L. A., Esq., London.

Shuttleworth, The Rev. Prof., M.A., London. (2 copies.)
Simon, Frank W., Esq., Edinburgh.

Simpson, J. W., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Simpson, The Rev. W. Sparrow, D.D., F.S.A., London.
Simpson, Jonathan, Esq., Bolton.

Simpkin, Marshall and Co., Messrs., London.

Singer, Messrs. F. W. and Sons, Frome.

Skelton, S. Gissing, Esq., London.

Smith, The Rev. Cooper, D.D., Basingstoke.

Spiers, R. Phene, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., London.
Stewart, W., Esq., Leytonstone.

Stevens, Mr. B. F., London.

Stevenson, J., Esq., Berwick-on-Tweed.

Street, A. E., Esq., M.A., F.R.I.B.A.. London.
Stannus, Hugh, Esq., London.

Stechert, Mr., London.

Stokes, Leonard, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Sykes, A., Esq., A.R. I.B.A., London.

The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors.
The Toronto Public Library, Canada.

Tapper, W. J., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Taylor, F. Stewart, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.
Taylor, A. T., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Montreal, Canada.
Taylor, Francis R., Esq., London.

Taylor, Isaac, Esq., Manchester.

Thomas, F. Inigo, Esq., London.

Thomason, Yeoville, Esq., F.R. I.B.A., London.
Thompson, John, Esq., Peterborough.

Tinker, H. A., Esq., London.

Tryon, Thomas, Esq., New York, U.S.A.

Tulloch, F. H., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Tunstall, J., Esq., London.

Turner, B., Esq., Barnsley.

Turnbull, Thomas, Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Wellington, N.Z.
Twining, Samuel, Esq., London.

Tylee, E. Graham, Esq., London.

Tyler, C., Esq., London.

Vicary, John, Esq., Newton Abbot.

His Grace the Duke of Wellington.

Sir James Whitehead, Bart., F.S.A.

The Watford Public Library.

The Wigan Public Library.

The Worcester Free Public Library, Mass., U.b.A.
The Wren Book Club, London.

Wade, H., Esq., Barnsley.

Wade, F. B., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Walker, W. T., Esq., London.

Wallen, F. T., Esq., Stroud Green, N.

Wallace, J., Esq., Edinburgh.

Warren, J., Esq., LL.B., London.

Warren, E. Prioleau, Esq., London.

Ward, W. H., Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Ward, F. E„ Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Belfast.

Watkins, W., Esq., F.R. I. B. A., Lincoln.

Watson, Johnston, Esq., Hampstead.

Watson, Robert, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.

Watson, Walter C., Esq., London.

Watson, John, Esq., Edinburgh.

Watson, T. L., Esq., P'.R.I.B.A., Glasgow.

Watt, P. H., Esq., Bedford.

Watt, George, Esq., Aberdeen.

Waymouth, W. Charles. Esq., A.R.I.B.A., London.
Webb, Aston, Esq., F.S.A. , F.R. I. B. A., London.
White, J. G., Esq., London.

White, The Rev. Lewis Borrett, D.D., London.
W'heeler, Samuel, Jun., Esq., Reading.

Whipham, E. A., Esq., Saltburn-by-the-Sea.

Wilson, G., Esq., Edinburgh.

Wilson, T. Butler, Esq., A.R.I.B.A., Leeds.

Williams, J. H., Esq., Worcester.

Winn, Thomas, Esq., Leeds.

Woodd, John H. T., Esq., London.

Woodman, Edgar, Esq., London.

Woodward, W., Esq., A.R. I. B. A., London.

Wonnacott, W., Esq., London.

Wornum, R. S., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., London.

Young, Sidney, Esq., F.S.A., A.R.I.B.A., London.

PREFACE.

HIS work is an attempt to draw attention to, and to illustrate in a manner
worthy of its importance, a most remarkable phase in the history of Art in
this country, and more especially that particular development of it exem¬
plified in the wonderful series of ecclesiastical buildings ere&ed in London
from the designs of Sir Christopher Wren and of his immediate successors.

In order to render this attempt as complete as possible, it is necessary to show what
changes were taking place and what deviations and departures from ancient rules and regula¬
tions with regard to the plan and arrangement of ecclesiastical buildings in the Metropolis had
already been effe&ed, under the Laudian Revival, by Inigo Jones. This last phase of the
Renaissance period in England had been already foreshadowed in a few churches which are
illustrated in these pages.

Few as they are, they form part of this chapter of English Art, and as no change ever
took place without signs of its coming, showing themselves first almost imperceptibly and
tentatively, as the first streaks of dawn in the eastern sky herald the coming day, so they
heralded that day of splendour which arose for this city of London, when, after it had been
laid low in the dust and ashes of the Great Fire of 1666, the genius of Sir Christopher Wren
caused the innumerable towers and spires of rebuilt churches to cluster around the greatest
effort of that genius — the Cathedral church of St. Paul. Infinite and varied in outline,
they formed graceful contrasts to its crowning mass ; from it they borrowed nothing, but
they added much to its central dignity, and made the London of our grandfathers a city

viii

perfectly unique in Europe, for no sight could be more beautiful than the views of the City
obtained from the bridges that spanned the then silver Thames. Ugly railway stations and
iron bridges have now blocked such views for ever, and even the towers and spires are fast
disappearing, while the churches they surmounted have given place to huge blocks of buildings,
to which it would be the greatest stretch of courtesy to apply the term “ Architectural.
Utilitarian they are, and are meant to be ; it is their purpose and destiny, but they have taken
away from us centres of interest around which were clustered the memories of centuries
beautiful interiors, rich with oaken carving, and other good honest and solid work, the pride
of those who wrought it. Iron girders, glazed bricks, and plate-glass fronts, may be well
enough in themselves, but they will never compensate us for that which has been ruthlessly
and irrevocably destroyed to make place for them.

Considering this faCt, is there need of any apology for the appearance of such a work
as the present ? Reliable illustrations of what we yet have, but soon may lose, are to be
found in its pages, truthfully presented by the aid of photography, and in permanent print.
Mr. Charles Latham has succeeded in producing for it a splendid series of photographs,
overcoming many difficulties ; and no trouble has been spared in securing the best
reproductions of these remarkable views — views to which no drawing, however excellent, could
have done justice.

If it be said that the work is incomplete, inasmuch as it does not give all the London
churches of the period, it may well be pointed out that this objection is of little importance, as
only those are omitted which are not of sufficient architectural merit to warrant such extension
of the work as would have been necessary to include them. To have given large views
of every one, of Wren’s only, would have considerably added to it, but plans and descriptions
are given of all his, including those which have been destroyed up to the present date ;
and to do more might have rendered it necessary to omit such works of his successors as
St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, St. Giles’s-in-the-Fields, St. Mary-le-Strand, St. Mary Woolnoth,
St. George’s Bloomsbury, and Christchurch Spitalfields.

It forms a complete record of the churches ereded in London during the century
commencing 1630 (in the reign of Charles I.), and includes those of Charles II., James II.,
William and Mary, Anne, and George I.

In the letterpress will be found, besides many architeflural details, numerous examples
of wood and metal-work, thus illustrating not only the particular phase of the art of
architecture, but also the subsidiary arts of the period.

In writing his accounts of some of these churches, the author has been fully aware of
the difficulty of saying anything new with regard to them. All that can be told of some of
them has already been told in the pages of John Stow, Hatton, and others, and his task has
often been to abridge and compress, while much has been necessarily omitted which was
purely of antiquarian interest and would only weary many readers, besides rendering the text
much too voluminous.

Cordial thanks are due to Mr. J. Starkie Gardner, for his kindness in giving numerous
illustrations of wrought-iron work ; to Mr. C. W. Baker and Mr. D. J. Ebbetts, for permission
to reproduce some details of their drawings of St. Paul’s Cathedral; to Mr. C. Innes and Mr.
A. C. Harston, for supplying some plans ; to Francis Penrose, M.A., President of the Royal
Institute of British Architects, for the large plan of St. Paul’s ; to Mr. Thomas Henry, for his
drawing of the font cover St. Edmund the King ; and to Mr. Alexander Bentham, for the
careful and effective drawings he has made especially for the work. From amongst those who
have so materially assisted in the production of this work, the name of Mr. Bradley Batsford
must not be omitted, and although mentioned last, his services in connection with it are not
therefore the least, for the general conception of such a work as “ London Churches of the
XVI Ith and XVIIIth Centuries ” is indeed mainly due to him, and one cannot be too grateful
for the care with which he has sub-edited it, suggesting alterations and revisions of the text,
and for his general supervision, which has involved a considerable amount of labour.

GEORGE H. BIRCH, F.S.A., A.R.I.B.A.

CURATOR OF THE SOANE MUSEUM.

Sir John Soane’s Museum,
Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

March, 1896.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF CHURCHES.

PAGE

St. Alban Wood Street . . . . . . . . . . .108

Allhallows the Great Thames Street ........ 89

Allhallows Bread Street . . . . . . . . . . .101

Allhallows Lombard Street . . . . . . . . . . 135

Allhallows Barking . . . . . . . . . . . .164

St. Andrew Holborn . . . . . . . . . . . 118

St. Andrew Wardrobe . . . . . . . . . . .134

St. Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate ........ 81

St. Anne Limehouse ........ ... 163

St. Antholin Budge Row .......... 87

St. Augustine and St. Faith . . . . . . . . . .91

St. Bartholomew Exchange .......... 74

St. Benet Fink ............. 44

St. Benet Paul’s Wharf .......... 93

St. Benet Gracechurch . . . . . . . . . . ,107

St. Bride Fleet Street ........... 75

St. Catherine Cree . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Christ Church Newgate . . . . . . . . . 120

Christ Church Spitalfields . . . . . . . . . . .157

St. Christophf.r-le-Stocks .......... 145

St. Clement Danes . . . . . . . . . . . .78

St. Clement Eastcheap ....... ... 92

St. Dionis Backchurch ........... 45

St. Dunstan in the East .... ..... 146

St. Edmund the King Lombard Street . . . . . . . .127

St. George Bloomsbury . . . . . . . . . . . 156

St. George Botolph Lane ........... 46

St. Giles in the Fields . . . . . . . . . . . 159

St. James Garlickhythe . . . . . ... . . . .54

St. James Piccadilly ........... 94

St. Lawrence Jewry . . . . . . . . . . . .58

St. Leonard Shoreditch ........... 164

St. Magnus London Bridge ....... ... 49

St. Margaret Pattens . ......... 125

xii

St. Margaret Lothbury
St. Martin in the Fields
St. Martin Ludgate .

St. Mary Aldermanbury .

St. Mary at Hill .

St. Mary-le-Bow .

St. Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street .
St. Mary Abchurch
St. Mary Somerset .

St. Mary Aldermary
St. Mary Woolnoth .

St. Mary-le-Strand
St. Matthew Friday Street
St. Michael Cornhill
St. Michael Wood Street .

St. Michael Queenhythe

St. Michael Bassishaw

St. Michael Paternoster Royal

St. Mildred Bread Street

St. Mildred Poultry

St. Nicholas Cole Abbey

St. Olave Jewry ....

St. Paul’s Cathedral .

St. Paul Covent Garden
St. Peter Cornhill .

St. Stephen Walbrook

St. Stephen Coleman Street

St. Swithin London Stone

St. Vedast Foster . . . .

. 130

151

■ 103

113

• 143
i47
1 60
!54
1 12

• 38, 15°
. 48

136

56
61
+3

■ 83
36

57
72

• 139

LIST

THE PLATES.

After St. Paul's the churches in this List follow in chronological order.

P1.ATE

Ornamental title-page, drawn

BY G.

H. Birch.

Frontispiece.

View of St. Paul’s Cathedral, from the

Steeple of St. Martin Ludgate.

St. Paul’s Cathedral.

The West Front.

II.

55 55

View from the North-west.

III.

55 5)

Part of the South Front.

IV.

55 55

Interior View.

55 55

The North Transept.

VI.

55 55

The South Aisle.

VII.

55 55

The North-west Chapel.

VIII.

55 55

The Organ Case, South side.

IX.

55 55

The Choir Stalls, Cantoris side.

55 55

The South Choir Aisle.

XI.

55 55

The Bishop’s Throne.

XII.

St. Catherine Cree.

Interior View.

XIII.

St. Mary-le-Bow.

The Steeple.

XIV.

St. Stephen Walbrook.

The Steeple.

XV.

55 55

Interior View.

XVI.

55 55

,, ,, West End.

XVII.

55 55

The Pulpit.

XVIII.

55 55

The Font.

XIX.

55 55

The Dome.

XX.

St. Mary at Hill.

Interior View.

XXI.

55 55

„ ,, The Organ Gallery.

XXII.

St. Magnus London Bridge.

The Steeple.

XXIII.

St. James Garlickhythe.

55 55

XXIV.

5 5 55

Interior View.

XXV.

St. Lawrence Jewry.

The Organ Case.

XXVI.

55 55

The Vestry.

XXVII.

St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.

Interior View.

XXVIII.

St. Swithin Cannon Street.

55 55

XXIX.

St. Bride Fleet Street.

The Steeple.

XXX.

55 55

Interior View.

XXXI.

St. Clement Danes.

The Steeple.

XXXII.

55 55

Interior, looking East.

XXXIII.

55 55

55 55 West.

XXXIV.

XIV

St. Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate.
St. Peter Cornhill.

Allhallows Thames Street.

St. James Piccadilly.

St. Mildred Bread Street.

St. Martin Ludgate.

St. Mary Abchurch.

St. Andrew Holborn.

Christ Church Newgate.

55 55

St. Margaret Pattens.

Allhallows Lombard Street.

St. Michael Paternoster Royal.

St. Vedast Foster.

St. Dunstan in the East.

St. Mary Aldermary.

St. Michael Cornhill.

St. Martin in the Fields.

55 55 55

St. Mary-le-Strand.

St. Giles in the Fields.

Christ Church Spitalfields.

St. George Bloomsbury.

55 55

St. Mary Woolnoth.

St. Leonard Shoreditch.

Allhallows Barking.

PLATE

Interior View.

XXXV.

XXXVI.

55 55

The Screen.

XXXVII.

Interior View.

XXXVIII.

The Altar.

XXXIX.

Interior View of West End.

XL.

View from the South-west.

XLI.

Interior View.

XLII.

XLIII.

The Steeple.

XLIV.

Interior View of West End.

XLV.

The Steeple.

XLVI.

The Altar and Pulpit.

XLVII.

The Steeple.

XLVIII.

XLIX.

Interior View from the West.

LI.

The Tower.

LII.

View from the North-west.

LIII.

Interior View.

LIV.

View from the West.

LV.

The Steeple.

LVI.

View of the West End.

LVII.

Interior, looking West.

LVIII.

View from the South-east.

LIX.

Interior View.

LX.

The Altar.

LXI.

The Steeple.

LXII.

Sword Rests.

LXIII.

The Font Cover.

LXIV.

INDEX TO ILLUSTRATIONS IN
THE TEXT.

PAGE

St. Alban. Wood Street. Interior View, looking West.

A. Bent ham.

109

Altar. St. Paul’s Cathedral. From

a Photograph.

Altar. St. Vedast Foster. J. MS. Stonhold.

140

Altar. St. Magnus London Bridge.

A. Be?itham.

5°

Altar, Details of. St. Magnus London Bridge.

Altar Rail. St. Mary Woolnoth. F.

Stuart Taylor.

161

„ „ St. John Westminster. J. Starkie Gardner.

,, ,, St. Matthew Spring Gardens.

55 5 5

„ ,, St. Martin in the Fields.

55 55

153

,5 „ St. Giles in the Fields.

5 5 55

1 57

Arms of the Stuarts. Tailpiece.

G. H. B.

Arms of the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s. Headpiece.

Bishop’s Throne. Details of Front, St. Paul’s Cathedral.

C. IV. Baker.

Capitals, Doric Order. St. Bride Fleet Street.

G. H. B.

Chandelier, Brass. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.

A. Bentham.

Chancel Screen and Details. St. Peter Cornhill.

Christ Church Newgate Street. Transverse Section.

G. H. B.

122

Console and Head of Door, back of Stalls. St. Paul’s Cathedral.

C. W. Baker.

,, of Dignitaries’ Stalls. St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Corbels and Keystones. St. Catherine Cree.

A. Bentha7n.

Cruets, Silver-Gilt. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.

Crypt. St. Mary-le-Bow, Plan of.

G. H. B.

„ Norman. St. Mary-le-Bow, Section through.

Dome, Section through, showing Construction. St. Paul’s Cathedral. ,,

Door-Case and Gallery Front. St. Mary Abchurch.

A. Bentham.

115

Door-Case and Details. ,, „

114

Door-Case and Details. St. Martin Ludgate.

104

Door-Case. St. Magnus London Bridge.

„

Door Head and Console back of Stalls. St. Paul’s Cathedral.

C. IV. Baker.

Doorway. St. Mary-le-Bow.

G. H. B.

Font Cover. St. Mary Abchurch.

A. Bentham.

117

Font Cover. St. Edmund the King.

T. Henry.

129

Font and Details. St. Catherine Cree.

A. Bentham.

Note. — The Plan of St. Paul’s Cathedral is drawn to a scale of 50 feet to 1 inch,
and the whole of the others, except the few which have scales attached, are to an uniform
scale of 32 feet to 1 inch. — G. H. B.

Font and Cover.

Gallery Front.

A. Bent ham.

C. W. Baker.

G. H. B.
A. Bent ham.
J. Starkie Gardner.
D. J. Ebbetts.

Paul’s

St. Magnus London Bridge.

St. Mildred Bread Street.

Christ Church Newgate.

St. Margaret Lothbury.

St. Magnus London Bridge.

,, St. Mary Abchurch.

Grilles. Back of Stalls, St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Headpiece. Royal Arms of the House of Stuart.

Iron Column. St. James Garlickhythe.

Iron Gates. St. Paul Covent Garden.

,, ,, North Aisle, St. Paul’s Cathedral.

„ „ South „ „ „

Iron Hat Rail. St. James Garlickhythe.

„ „ „ St. Michael Paternoster Royal.

Iron Terminal to Gate. The Geometrical Staircase, St.

Cathedral.

Iron Screens. North and South side of Choir, St.

Cathedral.

Jones, Inigo, Portrait of. Headpiece.

Keystones and Corbels. St. Catherine Cree.

St. Margaret Lothbury. Interior View showing Screen removed
from Allhallows Thames Street.

Monument and Details. The Spencer, St. Catherine Cree.

„ „ The Cheney, ,, ,,

Norman Crypt. St. Mary-le-Bow, Section through.

Organ Case. St. Magnus London Bridge.

,, Front. St. Mary Woolnoth.

Ornamental Tailpiece.

Panel and Details. Pulpit, St. Vedast Foster.

Panels. Carved and Pierced. St. Mary Abchurch.

St. Paul’s Cathedral. View from the South-east.

„ „ Ground Plan. F. C. Penrose , opposite

„ „ Plan of one Bay of Choir Stalls. „

„ „ Plan showing arrangement of Choir

in 1894. C. W. Baker. „

,, „ Se&ion showing Construction of Dome. G. H. B.

„ „ South Choir Aisle, looking West. From a Photograph.

„ „ View of the Nave, looking West. 3

,, „ Choir as completed, with Altar.

St. Paul Covent Garden. East Front, before removal of side Porticoes. G. H. B.

Plan 1 of the Monastery of the old Greyffiars. „

1 Plans to all the churches included in this work will be found at the commencement of the accounts of them, with the
exception of St. Dunstan in the East, St Giles in the Fields, St. Leonard Shoreditch, and Allhallows Barking.

A. Bent ham.

C. W. Baker.

D. y. Ebbetts.

A. Bent ham.

A. Bentham.

G. H. B.

A. Bentha?n.
F. Stuart Taylor.

G. H. B.
y. IF. Stonhold.
A. Bentham.
From a Photograph.
F. C. Penrose ,

124

133

115

137

132

29
34
52

162

142

116
16
16

22
22
3 1

XVII

PAGE

Plan

showing Wren’s Church relative to the old Friary Church. G. H. B.

122

„

Wren’s original, for St. Paul’s Cathedral.

„

,, as carried out.

St. Mary-le-Bow. Transverse Se&ion through Church and Crypt. „

Plaster

Work. St. Mildred Bread Street.

A. Bent ham.

Portrait. Inigo Jones. Headpiece.

Pulpit

and Sounding Board. St. Mildred Bread Street.

A. Bent ham.

IOO

„

,, ,, St. Margaret Lothbury.

I3I

Screen,

Iron. North and South side of Choir, St. Paul’s.

D. J. Ebbetts.

Screen,

Chancel. St. Peter Cornhill.

A. Bent ham.

„

,, 55 55 Details of.

Screen.

St. Margaret Lothbury, removed from Allhallows Thames

Street. ,,

132

Stall Ends, Details of. St. Paul’s Cathedral.

C. W. Baker.

,, Console of. St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Sword

Rest. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.

A. Bent ham.

,, St. Mildred Bread Street.

,, St. Edmund the King. J. Starkie Gardner.

1 29

,, St. Magnus London Bridge.

A. Bent ham.

Tower.

St. Benet Fink.

G. H. B.

St. Benet Paul’s Wharf.

St. Mary Magdalen Old Fish Street.

1 1 1

St. Mary Somerset.

143

St. Michael Bassishaw.

Tower

and Spire. St. Andrew Holborn.

1 19

„ St. Antholin Budge Row.

„

,, St. Augustine and St. Faith.

„ St. Benet Gracechurch.

107

„ St. Dunstan in the East.

146

„ with South Front. St. Edmund the King.

1 28

,, St. Lawrence Jewry.

„ St. Margaret Lothbury.

130

„ St. Mary Abchurch.

,, Upper part of St. Martin Ludgate.

i°5

,, St. Mildred Bread Street.

,, St. Michael Queenhythe.

5’

,, St. Nicholas Cole Abbey.

,, St. Swithin London Stone.

Wood Carving. Head of Door and Console, Back of Stalls,

St. Paul’s Cathedral.

C. IV. Baker.

„ Details of Stall Ends, „ „

„ „ „ and Small Doors.

„ Console supporting Canopies of Dignitaries’

Stalls, St. Paul’s Cathedral.

XV111

PAGE

Wood

Carving. Font Cover, St. Catherine Cree.

A. Bent ham.

55 Organ Case, St. Magnus London Bridge.

„ Door Head „ 55

„ Font Cover „ 55

„ St. Mildred Bread Street.

„ Pulpit and Sounding Board, St. Mildred Bread Street. „

100

„ Door Head, St. Martin Ludgate.

104

„ St. Mary Abchurch.

114

„ Gallery Front „ „

115

„ Pierced Panels „ „

1 16

„ Font Cover „ „

„ St. Edmund the King.

129

”

, Pulpit and Sounding Board, St. Margaret, Lothbury. ,,

I3I

„ Altar-piece, St. Vedast Foster.

J. IV. St on hold.

140

„ Panel from Pulpit, „ „

141

„ Organ Case, St. Mary Woolnoth.

F Stuart Taylor.

162

Wren.

Crest of Sir Christopher. Tailpiece.

G. H. B.

Portrait of.

1 itle-page

151571

LONDON CHURCHES OF THE

SEVENTEENTH & EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES.

INTRODUCTION.

EFORE the great and dreadful Fire of 1666 here stood the Parish Church

of - This inscription, which is to be found in one or two places

within the boundaries of the City, at once arrests the attention of the
thoughtful passer, and takes him back to those few awful days of September, a
little more than two centuries ago, when that whirlwind of flame swept over
nearly the whole area within the walls, and the largest and most magnificent
Cathedral in England, together with ninety-three parish churches and chapels; the Guildhall,
the Royal Exchange, fifty of the City Companies’ Halls, and thirteen thousand houses, went
down before it, like so much stubble, leaving nothing but ruined and blackened fragments to
tell of what the piety, the freedom, the accumulated wealth, and the private enterprise of past
generations had established there. Truly such an awful catastrophe, unequalled even by the
conflagrations of modern American cities, might well be termed “ the great and dreadful
Fire of 1666,” destroying, as it did, property to the value of ten millions of money, at that time.
Far beyond this, the loss to the Art of this country was irreparable ; yet it was instrumental
in giving us handsome public buildings, well-lighted and airy churches, with wider streets,
and houses built of less inflammable material, in exchange for the narrow tortuous thorough¬
fares, lined with wooden and plaster houses of several projecting storeys, and the small, low,
dark, and half-buried churches of the preceding ages.

The ground had been well prepared ; a complete tabula rasa had been made of all
that had hitherto adorned the City, and there was ample room for new ideas, and new projects,
with a complete emancipation from all the trammels which had hitherto fettered and bound
men’s minds by the associations and traditions of the past. But these new ideas, these
magnificent projects, were never to be realized in their entirety ; the old traditions proved too

strong; they could not be lightly thrust on one side; and the New Ctty arose from its ashes
very much on the lines of the old, so far as the direSion of the streets and lanes was concerned^
the improvements effeded being only with regard to the extra widths of the streets,

the better materials of the buildings. f , , , r-

The old historic names of the streets survived, and the greater number of the old City
Churches were rebuilt on exaaly the same sites, and, in most cases, utilizing t e o
foundations. In almost every instance, where one of them has been removed, the process of
demolition reveals this faft. St. Dionis Backchurcb, St. Michael Queenhythe, St. Benet
Gracechurch, St. Benet Fink, St. Olave Jewry, St. Mildred Poultry, St. Mary Magdalene
Fish Street Hill, St. Antholin Budge Row, St. Mary Somerset, St. Matthew Friday Street
(partly), St. Christopher-le-Stocks and St. Bartholomew Exchange, are all cases m point ;
while the various reparations which have taken place, from time to time, in the following
churches, Christ Church Newgate, St. Mary-at-Hill, St. Stephen Walbrook, St Magnus
London Bridge, St. Stephen Coleman Street, St. Vedast Foster, St. Nicholas Cole Abbey,
St. Martin Ludgate, etc., reveal the fad that the old walls have been made use of, and in
many cases only faced with Portland stone. At St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, in removing the oak
panelling in order to repair and strengthen it, the whole of the south wall was found to be
ancient, and in making a converter station for the Eleftric Light Company, about two years
ago, a large obtusely pointed arch was found, existing below the present level, and too wide for
a doorway. Unless it was the archway of a porch, with steps leading up to the church (for
the difference of levels has always been very marked), it is difficult to say what could have
been the use of it : the arch and jambs were plainly chamfered, and it had been walled with
rough masses of chalk and stone rubble. The north and east walls of the same church were
partly ancient, with fragments of mouldings, and broken Purbeck shafts built in ; the presence
of the latter indicating that the old church, consumed in the Fire, must have been early
thirteenth century work. When the unfortunate demolition of St. Michael’s Bassishaw, and
All Hallows the Great Thames Street, is completed, the same conditions will probably be
found in these cases. Some of the larger churches, as St. Dunstan’s in the East, St. Mary
Aldermary, St. Sepulchre Snow Hill, are known to follow exactly the old lines, as does also
St. Alban’s Wood Street. In Christchurch Newgate Street, eredted on the site of the choir
of the old Franciscan Friary Church, the old buttresses exist just below the ground, and still
mark the modern divisions of the present church. These instances are adduced to show that
the churches rebuilt after the Fire occupied the identical positions of the ancient structures,
and that the plan of the rebuilt church was more or less influenced by these walls and
foundations. How Wren effedted this in most cases is shown hereafter, and it will be seen
that, although fettered by the boundaries of the ancient churches, he departed in most cases
from the ground plan and arrangement of them, and in his own particular style, gave us
manv buildings which we may well be proud of.

Prior to this time, most churches had followed one particular plan ; a nave separated from
its aisles by columns and arches, sometimes with only one aisle north or south. A strudtional
chancel was rare in London churches, most of which had been rebuilt in the fifteenth
century without a chancel arch, the aisles being usually prolonged to the extreme east end, and
their eastern parts screened off with oak parcloses, separating this part from both nave and

chancel ; the position of the chancel arch being occupied by the rood screen. In most of the
London churches this screen had been removed, together with the rood, in consequence of
religious troubles ; they mostly possessed towers, placed either at the west end of the
nave, or at the west end of either the north or south aisles. Most of these towers were
low, with an oCtagonal turret at one corner, carried up above the embattled parapet and
finished with a vane, but some of the larger churches had more stately towers, with fine high
corner pinnacles, as at St. Sepulchre’s, St. Michael Cornhill, St. Mary Aldermary, etc., while
St. Mary-le-Bow possessed one which was unique, so far as London was concerned, for here
the four corner pinnacles were connected by flying buttresses supporting a central pinnacle.'
Spires were comparatively rare ; St. Lawrence Pountney had a very fine one, and, according to
John Stow, the Austin Friars church possessed one, of which he speaks with great admiration.
The types of these ancient churches can still be seen in a few which fortunately escaped
the flames. Of the larger of these, All Hallows Barking, St. Andrew Undershaft, and
St. Mary Aldermary (rebuilt by Wren in the ancient form), St. Giles Cripplegate, St. Olave
Hart Street, St. Ethelburga Bishopsgate, and St. Peter’s in the Tower, show us exactly what
they all were like ; while others which also escaped, but have since been rebuilt ; St. Peter-
le-Poer, St. Botolph’s Aldersgate, All Hallows Staining, All Hallows in the Wall, and
St. Martin’s Outwich, closely resembled them. St. Helen’s Bishopsgate (happily also still
standing), was only partly parochial ; the church of the Benedictine Nunnery was attached to it,
and formed a nave and choir parallel to the parish church, only separated from it by an arcade.

This multiplicity of churches (which numbered a hundred and thirteen, besides the
Cathedral), was essentially English, for in all our cities the parishes were very small in extent,
which is observable at York, Bristol, Exeter, and Chichester, and, apart from the large
conventual churches, the parish churches were necessarily small ; such vast and roomy
churches as one sees in many continental cities being conspicuous by their absence.
Architecturally this was a distinCt loss, but very few foreign cities could show such
superb structures as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the great priories of the Austin
Canons, Christchurch or Holy Trinity Aldgate, St. Bartholomew’s Smithfield, St. Mary
Overie, each as large as a cathedral ; the great Friary Churches of the Dominicans, Franciscans,
Austins, Carmelites, Hospitallers, Templars, Crutched Friars, Minoresses, St. Katherine’s, and
the Abbey of Grace (the last belonging to the Cistercian Order), all within the City walls,
or not far from them.

Although some of these structures had then disappeared, an idea can be formed of the
ecclesiastical appearance of London in the reign of Charles I., when Inigo Jones was in full
pradice as an architect, and would naturally have been called in to ereCt any new church
in London, if, in consequence of decay, any one of the numerous old ones had become
ruinous, and required rebuilding. Tradition points to two churches in the City of London
as coming from his hand, one remaining, and the other having been rebuilt by Sir Christopher
Wren after the Great Fire, in the same form as Inigo Jones had rebuilt it in 1632 ; the first
being St. Katherine Cree or Christchurch, and the second, St. Alban Wood Street. The
traditional plan is followed in both these churches, but Classic details invest them, especially the

Sir Christopher Wren used a modification of this in his well-known spire of St. Dunstan’s in the East.

first mentioned, with an
next half century, were

architeftural interest, pointing to those coming changes, which, in the
to be so fully developed under Sir Christopher Wren. Little beyond

tradition can be adduced to show that Inigo Jones was the architeift of either of them, and it is
indeed difficult to imagine how the man who designed a fajade of such Classic purity as the
Banqueting House, Whitehall, or the church of St. Paul s Covent Garden, could possibly have
been the author of this peculiar blending of Classic detail on Gothic forms, especially when he
had publicly evinced his known contempt for the latter, by adding the Corinthian portico to
the west front of Old St. Paul’s, and disguising the Norman work of the nave (externally) under
a Classic covering. Yet, on the other hand, it is a known fadl, that he did design the Chapel of
Lincoln’s Inn, where the same mixture of the two styles is apparent, as it also is (or was) at the
old church of St. Paul’s Hammersmith, built for his friend Sir Nicholas Crispe. If he designed
these he surely could also have designed the others, and it may be asked, who was there at
that time (1625 to 1640) who could possibly have been their author but Inigo Jones ?

Nor does this seem so improbable, when one considers that William Laud, afterwards the
martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, then filled the see of London, and administered the diocese
with no uncertain hand. He had clearly foreseen the rising torrent of Puritanism, and attempted
to stem that torrent, leading men back into the old paths by setting before them their true
inheritance in their own Church of England. He had revived many old customs and ceremonies,
which the statecraft of Elizabeth and the weak apathy of James, had allowed to fall into
desuetude, and in this matter of architedture, although he may have had no wish to interfere
with the fashionable taste for Classic details, he was determined that the buildings, so far as plan
and arrangement were concerned, should follow the old models, and Inigo Jones worked
accordingly ; but when the latter could throw off the trammels of ecclesiastical tradition, he
did so, as at Whitehall, and at the Queen’s Chapel, Somerset House. Here he had to reckon
with the King and not the Bishop, and he was free to follow his own bent. Again, at St. Paul’s
Covent Garden, it was a private patron, Francis, Earl of Bedford, who only wanted a “ barn,”
with whom he had to deal. A view of this church is not included in the present series, for the
reason that the two disastrous fires which have occurred here have destroyed every portion of
Imgo Jones’s work. The first of these fires happened on Sept. 17th, 1795, and the church
was totally destroyed, but it was rebuilt by John Hardwick on the same plan and of the same

proportions, but before this, however (in 1727), the Earl of Burlington had repaired it, and again
the interior has been demolished by fire in quite recent years. The eastern portico has also been

a tprpn in 1-hp* loci- 4-pMTr imovs _ : _ _ . • r , . 1

12 Car. II., 1660.

Horace Walpole’s strictures upon this church were singularly correCt ; he could find
nothing to admire in it, although the sum spent upon it (^4,500) was a large one for those days.
If architecturally it was a failure, it is interesting as being the first church on the new model,
in which galleries were to form an important part. St. Paul’s Shadwell, built in 1656, by
an unknown architect, was originally without galleries, but they were added in 1683. The
design was Classic, and the camerated roof was supported by columns. It was taken down
and rebuilt in 1817, from the design of John Walters. These churches were the recognized
models of ecclesiastical art in the two or three decades preceding the Great Fire.

Immediately after the Restoration, in 1661, Charles II. proposed certain works to be
commenced, the most important being the reparation of the Old Cathedral Church of St. Paul,
for the repairs which had been commenced by Inigo Jones, had of course been completely
stopped by the Puritans, and the cathedral was in a worse state than ever, threatening ruin in
several places; and it is in connection with this fabric that we find Sir Christopher (or rather “ Dr.”)
Wren’s name first associated with architecture in London. At Oxford he had already a con¬
siderable reputation, and this faCt influenced the King to appoint him Assistant Surveyor
General to his Majesty’s Works, a post then held, oddly enough, by Sir John Denham, the poet,
to whom the reversion of the office had been promised in the lifetime of Inigo Jones. Denham,
on the evidence of Evelyn, knew nothing about architecture, and, to quote the latter’s diary
with regard to the new palace at Greenwich : “I knew him to be a better poet than an
architect, although he had Mr. Webb, Inigo Jones’s man (his son-in-law), to assist him.” It is
not only possible, but highly probable, that Evelyn had mentioned Wren’s name to the King.
He was then only twenty-nine years of age, was the son of Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of
Windsor, and nephew to the famous Dr. Matthew Wren, Lord Bishop of Ely. It is a curious
faCt that his father the Dean seems to have possessed some knowledge of architecture, for among
the Clarendon papers is an estimate for a house for Queen Henrietta Maria, which Dr. Wren
had designed, so that the son’s taste and skill in this particular art was evidently inherited.
We have no evidence that he had studied the art as Inigo Jones had done, by going abroad and
seeing Palladio’s works ; certainly not at this period of his career, for he did not travel abroad
until 1665. “ Poeta nascitur non fit ” is an adage applicable to him as an architect, as it may

be to others, for no amount of “ examinations ” can discover artistic skill where it is not inherent !

It is not necessary to go into the question of what Wren proposed with regard to the old
Cathedral, for the Great Fire swept all before it, and rendered the various schemes useless.
Immediately afterwards we find Wren hard at work on a scheme for rebuilding the City, on an
entirely new plan, but the necessary interference with the rights of private property prevented
this from being carried out, and the new City arose from the ashes of, and on the same lines as,
the old.

In Longman’s “ History of the Three Cathedrals of St. Paul,” a full account is given of
the various ideas held as to the rebuilding of it at this period, but not until nine years had
elapsed was the first stone of the new Cathedral laid (June 21st, 1675). During these years
Wren had not been idle ; the rebuilding of the City had been going on at a rapid rate, and it is
marvellous to observe that such awful calamities as the Plague, which swept away over one
hundred thousand of its inhabitants, and then the Fire which followed so quickly upon it, proved
insufficient to utterly demoralize the remaining citizens. But such was the case ; no gloomy

views as to London being a “doomed city” seem to have prevailed, and although the nation was
a&ually at war at this period, the spirit and energy of the people were undaunted, and not even
the “law’s delay” and the necessary delicate and nice adjustment of boundaries, consequent
upon the ancient lines of streets, and lanes, and properties, being buried beneath piles ol rubbish,
stopped the rapid progress of the rebuilding. It may or it may not be a matter of regret that
Evelyn and Wren’s scheme for the rebuilding of the City on an entirely new plan, was abandoned,
but it is certainly deplorable that the quay, forty feet wide, from London Bridge to the
Temple, for which two Adis had been obtained, was never carried out; the loss to London has
been incalculable, and it seems now that the realization of this idea is more utterly hopeless than
ever, owing to the increase of the value of property, and that this magnificent opportunity has
been lost, must we say, for ever !

To have rebuilt, not only the Cathedral, but also some fifty or sixty parish churches, would
have been absolutely impossible if private enterprise and private munificence had alone to be
depended upon, to raise the necessary funds. Accordingly in 1670 we find an additional Adt
was passed to raise two shillings additional per chaldron on coals, one shilling having already
been levied, and this was to be divided into certain moieties, of which the rebuilding of the
churches was to take three fourths, and that of St. Paul’s Cathedral one fourth; and there can
be very little doubt that the rebuilding of the City had proceeded so rapidly, that some such
provision was necessary.

The first church to be rebuilt was St. Mary-le-Bow, Cheapside, and this was commenced
in 1671,' but was not completely finished, with its tower and spire, until 1680. There was a
special fitness in this precedence, for this church had always been, after the Cathedral, the most
important ecclesiastical building in the City, and might justly be termed the “ Citizens’
church.” It was from the curious tower, surmounted by a central and four corner lanterns, and
carried by flying buttresses, that the curfew was rung nightly, and so anxiously expe&ed by
the prentices, as commemorated in the well-known distich and reply :

. . .. 1 l 1 1 me yenuw IUCKS,

For thy late ringing thy head shall have knocks.

Children of Chepe, hold you all still

For you shall have Bow Bell rung at your will.”

With funds thus provided from the public exchequer, the work of rebuilding the City
churches on the old sites proceeded rapidly ; provision seems to have been made for divine worship
in many of the parishes, if not in all, by the eredtion of “tabernacles,” a sort of temporary
building, which was licensed not only for the services, but also for the celebration of marriages
In the archive chamber of St. Paul’s Cathedral, there is a volume entitled “ Schemes of
Tabernacles quoted by Dr. Sparrow Simpson in his account of St. Matthew Friday Street.*

,r2 ^infcT/d Was deWed b7 Private subscriptions

(^,375 being colluded in this way), which is mentioned here only to draw attention to the

‘ The reP»irs to St- Sepulchre Holborn, and St. Christouher Thr„a„ j, c
case was rebuilding necessary. v aaneecue street, were commenced in 1670, but in neither

- ‘‘Transafilions, London and Middlesex Archeological Society" vol ill „ , ,.

minutes of the vestry of St. Peter Cornhill, 31st December 1672 • “O H A u ^ m V0 ' ‘V-’ P- 3°5> *n the

5 guineas as a gratuitee for his paines and furtherance of a Tabernacle forThis p • ^ churchwardens do present Dr. Wren with

fad: that these churches were not entirely rebuilt from public moneys, but that the private
munificence of church-people largely contributed to their erection. A more detailed account
of this church will be found under its proper heading. The next church taken in hand was St.
Stephen’s Walbrook, which, after the Cathedral, is very justly looked upon as Wren’s masterpiece.
The rebuilding of this church took place in 1672, and was followed in the same year by
that of St. Michael Cornhill, and St. Mary-at-Hill. This group of four churches is therefore
important in the history of Art, as it gives us representative types of plan and arrangement,
and thoroughly exemplifies the fertility of Wren’s genius. In St. Michael Cornhill we get
the ordinary basilican plan, that is to say, a long parallelogram divided into a central nave
and side-aisles, by columns and arches. In St. Mary-le-Bow we get a modification of this, by a

wide central nave of three bays only, divided from rather narrow aisles by arches; and the

vaulting over the aisles is concentric with the arches, and groined over the transverse arch.

St. Mary-at-Hill is nearly square in plan, with a central dome carried by four arches and

pendentives ; these four arches open into four compartments with plain barrel vaults, and the
lour corner spaces have flat ceilings at the level of the impost — a very simple but most effective
arrangement. The last example, St. Stephen’s Walbrook, has a more complex treatment,
combining the basilican plan, with a central dome carried on an oCtagon ; the ceilings over the
chancel and nave and short transepts, are barrel- vaulted, and those of the aisles, which in
this case are double, have flat ceilings. This is but a rough description of one of the most
beautiful interiors imaginable ; the plan is very simple, and the proportions most harmonious,
and, so far as internal beauty is concerned, Wren never surpassed this church, which is one of
his earliest works.

In quick succession to these four churches came, in 1673, St. Olave Jewry, and St. Benet
Fink; in 1674, St. Dionis Backchurch, St. George Botolph, and St. Michael Wood Street,
the latter finished in 1675; in 1676, St. Magnus London Bridge, St. James Garlick Hythe,
St. Mildred Poultry, and St. Stephen Coleman Street; in 1677, St. Lawrence Jewry,
St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, St. Mary Aldermanbury, and St. Michael Queenhythe. Of these
churches, St. Magnus and St. James are basilican in type, but the last-mentioned has a kind of
transeptal arrangement. St. Magnus has a very fine tower and spire, almost rivalling in beauty
and harmony of outline, the spire of Bow Church, but this fine campanile was not added until
long after the church was completed — indeed, not until 1705. St. Lawrence Jewry is a
simple parallelogram, with a broad aisle on the north side, only partially occupied by the area
of the church, the upper part forming a gallery with roomy vestibules below, very useful for
purposes of civic state, as this church became the Corporation Church, on the destruction of
the Guildhall Chapel on the opposite side of the yard. The chief beauty of this church is its
unusually rich woodwork. At the west end is a very stately vestry, superbly panelled in oak,
and with a painted ceiling, of which a view is given in this work; views are also given of the
organ-case and gallery. St. Nicholas Cole Abbey is a simple parallelogram, without aisles,
and with a flat trabiated ceiling, but the west end is treated in a very original manner with
three lofty arches, which contain organ and side galleries ; the lower part is screened off from
the church, and forms a vestibule and vestry, and the north-west arch opens into the tower,
the lower part of which, with the spiral staircase, seems to be the ancient tower re-cased.
St. Olave Jewry was a simple parallelogram in plan with a west tower, and was remarkable for

_ , , ■ r|,P east end being much narrower than

gularity, being almost coffin-shaped in plan , the e S

its irre;

thC T Dionis Backchurch had a short and broad nave and aisles. St. Stephen Coleman is

a parallelogram without aisles. St. Mildred Poultry was nearly square without aisles, but had
a paraneiog Mirliael Oueenhythe was oblong without aisles,

a tower breaking awkwardly into the area. St. M chad ^ ^ ^

St. Mary Aldermanbury is basilican with a wert ■ ' mos£ remarkable 0f

without aisles. St. Benet Fink had a very curious and interesting P >

all this group, for it consisted of an elliptical dome in the centre, earned by six columns and

, • , , , , n western tower; each of the six arches opened

pendentives, and surrounded by a decagon with a western iuwc , r

into recesses, of which two on the south and two on the north were parallel, and the east and

west at right angles, the four triangular spaces having flat ceilings. Of this group of churches,

all built between 1673 and 1677, no less than five have already been destroyed, and another

(St. George Botolph) is threatened.

From 1678 to 1688 (the year of James II. ’s forced retirement from the throne), Wren was
exceedingly busy. One would have thought that the Cathedral alone would have been
sufficient to occupy his time, but he designed in rapid succession St. Michael Bassishaw, St.
Swithin Cannon Street, and St. Bartholomew by the Bank in 1678 ; St. Bride Fleet Street, one
of his largest and finest churches, in 1679; St. Clement Danes and St. Anne and St. Agnes
Aldersgate, in 1680; St. Peter Cornhill, another fine handsome church, in 1681 ; St. Antholin
Budge Row, a very curious domed plan, elliptical, like St. Benet Fink, but carried on eight
columns and pendentives, with a finely proportioned western tower and spire in stone, in 1682 ;
All Hallows Thames Street, called generally All Hallows the Great, St. Augustine and St. Faith
Wading Street, St. Clement Eastcheap, St. Benet Paul’s Wharf, St. James Piccadilly (a large and
fine church), St. Mildred Bread Street, in 1683; All Hallows Bread Street, and St. Martin
Ludgate, in 1684.; St. Alban Wood Street (Gothic in style), St. Mary Magdalene Old Fish
Street, and St. Matthew Friday Street, in 1685; St. Mary Abchurch in 1686; St. Andrew
Holborn (the largest of all his churches), Christ Church Newgate Street, and St. Margaret
Pattens in 1687, and St. Michael Crooked Lane, in 1688. Eight of these have been destroyed,
or, more correctly speaking, seven, as St. Michael Bassishaw is still in process of demolition, the
most deplorable losses being the churches of St. Antholin Budge Row, with its fine spire, and
St. Mary Magdalene Old Fish Street,' with its remarkably fine oak carving, probably by Grinling
Gibbons, as it is so much more delicate and light in character than the carving in most of these
churches. In this group are included some one or two churches of the most original design
and conception. St. Swithin, which is an odtagon contained within a square, carries an elegant
and well-proportioned dome, the square being prolonged to the west, so as to include a tower at
the south-west corner, and a deep west gallery, with a flat plaster ceiling over it. St. Mildred
Bread Street, which is exceedingly simple ; a plain parallelogram without aisles, but broken up
internally by a shallow circular dome, on pendentives, and two arched recesses on the east and
west sides. St. Mary Abchurch is another domed church, similar in plan and arrangement
to St. Swithin, but that the tower occupies the north-west corner, while the dome (painted by
Sir James Thornhill) is carried on semicircular arches or groins, and has lucarne lights. St.
Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate, and St. Martin Ludgate, are both similar as to plan, but not in
1 ThC 1085 °f ^ ChUrCh ^ attributabIe to an ^fortunate fire in a neighbouring warehouse, and not to wanton destruction.

arrangement. The plan is a square, divided by four columns into four nearly equal arms, which
are arched, and meet in a groined vault over the central area, while over the four angle squares
the ceilings are flat, and lower. Both churches are separated from the street, on the west by a
central tower and flanking vestibules. St. Martin’s Ludgate, with its graceful lead spire and
gallery, forms a splendid contrast to the overpowering mass of the Cathedral in the back¬
ground, and makes the view of the latter wonderfully picturesque when approached from the
west — a view which has however been ruined by the London, Chatham and Dover Railway
Company’s hideous iron bridge (bristling with griffins), built right across the thoroughfare, so that
the winding street and the little spire have lost all their poetry. It was from the gallery of this
spire that the magnificent view of the Cathedral forming the frontispiece to this volume was
taken. All Hallows the Great, now demolished, was chiefly remarkable for its splendid high
screen in oak, which has recently been placed in the church of St. Margaret Lothbury. All
Hallows had previously been shorn of its north aisle and tower, and with singular incongruity
the site has lately been purchased by a firm of brewers.

Although during the next year (1689) no new church seems to have been commenced,
the work of rebuilding and finishing progressed rapidly, and Wren was fully occupied with
many large and important works, including the College of Physicians, Chelsea Hospital, and
Hampton Court Palace, the latter for William and Mary, who both entertained for Wren a
warm regard. During the next decade we find him again busy on the churches : in 1690 the
fabrics of St. Edmund the King Lombard Street, St. Margaret Lothbury (begun in 1686),
St. Andrew by the Wardrobe (finished 1692). In 1694 were built All Hallows Lombard
Street, St. Michael Royal, and in 1695 St. Mary Somerset. In the latter year towers and
spires were added to St. Augustine and St. Faith Wading Street, also to St. Vedast Foster. In
1696 St. Christopher-le-Stocks was further embellished, and a painted monument placed in
it to the memory of Mary II., then lately deceased.

On December 2nd, 1697, the choir oi the new Cathedral of St. Paul was formally
consecrated for divine service, which has continued uninterruptedly ever since. The occa¬
sion was the Peace of Ryswick, and Wren was then sixty-five years of age. In 1699 the
very beautiful spire of St. Dunstan in the East was finished by him. It is Gothic in form and
outline, reminding one somewhat of the departed glory of the old spire of St. Mary-le-Bow or
St. Nicholas Newcastle, yet differing from them both in that the central lantern is carried up
much higher, as a perfect spire. In this year he also repaired the body of the church, which
had only been hastily patched up after the Fire, and he was then busy with the Collegiate
Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, which, from the decayed nature of the external
stonework, demanded immediate attention. Whether he was really responsible for the design
of the western towers is a moot point. In his report to Dr. Atterbury, then Dean, he
strongly urges that the towers should be carried up above the roof to a uniform height, and
that the west gable should be completed, and the west window strengthened, and mentions
that he has made a design for the central tower and spire, but adds nothing as to having made
a design for the western towers. Possibly the model still preserved in Westminster Abbey was
made from his design. In 1 704 he completed the towers of St. Andrew Holborn, and
Christchurch Newgate Street, and in 1705 the spire of St. Magnus.

In 1708 the Ad: for building fifty new churches in the neighbourhood of London, was

passed, and Wren was appointed one of the Commissioners. He made a long report to his
brother Commissioners as to many points he thought very necessary to be observed, in the
erection of the proposed churches. This report is curious, and very valuable, but it is too
long for insertion here. It presents the ideas of a man who, having built many churches,
knew perfe&ly what he was talking about. There are important points observable in all
Wren’s churches, which it is a pity his successors did not profit by. They were eminently
Christian ; he never attempted huge columns, porticoes, and pediments borrowed from
heathen temples ; he was not afraid of good honest brick, and the introduction of galleries,
sometimes unfortunately rendered necessary, was never objectionable in his works, and in his
report he recommends that the c£ churches should not be filled with pews, which, to his
honour, he much disliked. His words are : “ It were to be wished there were to be no pews,
but benches ; but there is no stemming the tide of profit and the advantage of pew-keepers.”
Another remark strikes us in these days as curious : ££ That the poor may have room enough
to stand and sit in the alleys ,” a fatal mistake, which the Church has suffered from, and is
suffering from to this day, and which led to the alienation of the lower classes.

In 1710, Wren, being in his seventy-eighth year, assisted by his son Christopher and Mr.
Strong, the Master-mason to the Cathedral, laid the top stone. Although old, he was still as
active and vigorous as ever, and in 17 n he built the beautiful Gothic church of St. Mary
Aldermary upon the plan of the old church as it was before the Fire. In 1721 (two years before
his death), he completed the new Gothic tower to St. Michael Cornhill, nearly fifty years after
he had built the body of the church. Half a century ! and what a half-century of work ! Truly
it may be said of him, ££ Whatsoever his hand found to do, he did it with his might,” and no
more appropriate epitaph, nor one more touching in its very brevity, could be written, than that
which is found on the simple stone covering the spot where he sleeps after life’s fitful fever :

CHRISTOPHORUS • WREN

QUI • VIXIT ANNOS ULTRA • NONAGINTA
NON SIBI • SED BONO • PUBLICO
LECTOR • SI • MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS
CIRCUMSPICE.

From the foregoing remarks it will be noticed that these churches of Wren may be
roughly grouped into five distind types j first, the basilican, of which there are eighteen, and
whrch have the nave and aisles, with towers, generally at the west end of the nave, but occasionally
at the north-west or south-west corner; secondly, the plain parallelogram with one aisle,
either on the north or south, of which tVDe there arp op™,, .1 • 11 1 , . ,,

-i fiLi , ^ are sevenj thirdly, the plain parallelogram

without aisles, or which there are thirteen- fonrt-hlv • 1 • , , . . , ,

a • «. r l • , 1 ’ fourthly , those in which the principle of the

dome predominates, of which there are six; and, fifthlv the Greek c u • u u

three Rut Jr, ™ i , , niy> tne 'jreek cross, of which there are

three. But m no s.ngle case are these plans copies of one another. There is a distinft

individuality about each; local considerations of site, relation to leading thoroughfare the
position from which the tower and spire could best be seen, were all points which he care’i
considered. The internal fittings were of the best ■ the nal- j r , carefully

was well selected, the plaster work rich and varied ’a^d th ” 7 "ff “g Panelling

a varied, and the carving admirably executed.

Wren rarely built constructional chancels, but almost invariably marked the division
between nave and chancel by a low screen of carved work, placed on the top of the very high
pews. The pulpits were always admirably designed and carved, and many had highly enriched
sounding-boards, but the altars were generally very low and small in size — a fashion which he
introduced, for during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I., and Charles I., they were rather
large. Marble altars were not uncommon. St. Antholin, St. Mary Aldermary, and All
Hallows the Great, St. Clement Danes, St. Andrew Holborn, and several others possessed
them ; but the altar at St. Stephen’s Walbrook is of oak, and is semicircular. Some of these
oak altars have their carved supports, taking the form of angels and cherubs, as at St. Vedast
Foster, and they were invariably raised on a foot-pace of marble. The fonts were small basin¬
shaped vases, supported on baluster shafts, and usually provided with a rich oak cover. Many
of these are very beautiful works of art, notably those at All Hallows Barking, St. Margaret
Lothbury, St. Stephen Walbrook, and St. James Piccadilly; in the last-named church the
font itself is very beautiful. Wren generally placed the organ in a west gallery, also occupied
by the choir ; for choir-stalls in the chancel did not exist in his time, except in large cathedral
or collegiate churches, or in the old parish churches, where the ancient arrangement had not
been disturbed. Many of his City churches did not possess organs until long after his time ;
the most prominent feature in all of them was the lofty carved oak altar-piece, which, in
obedience to the Canon, displayed the Decalogue, flanked by the Apostles’ Creed and the Lord’s
Prayer, and by figures of Moses and Aaron, surmounted by the Royal Arms, and sometimes
the seven golden candlesticks (with sham tapers and gilt flames), in allusion to the Book of
Revelation of St. John the Divine, were to be found. Real candlesticks decorated the altars of
St. Benet Gracechurch, and All Hallows Barking, these being placed on the altar itself. In these
churches the galleries formed an integral part of the design, and the approaches to them were
easy and commodious. The passages between the pews were wide; altar -rails were
generally returned at the sides, and very handsome metal work in the shape of brass branches
or chandeliers, and wrought-iron sword-rests of most varied design, were to be found in nearly
all. Stone spires were not so general as those of timber covered with lead, which Wren also
used largely in roofing.

Perhaps it will not be out of place here to allude to the services which were held in
these churches at this time. Prayers were said twice daily (morning and evening) in many,
and, in almost all, there were services on Wednesdays and Fridays and Holydays, besides the
ordinary Sunday services, which were generally three in number ; while the large and
important churches had always two, and on Wednesdays and Fridays three services daily.
Our forefathers must have been earlier risers than we, for morning prayers were often said at
six or seven o’clock.

Nicholas Hawksmoor, the most original of Wren’s pupils and successors, was born in the
year of the Great Fire, and was articled to Wren in 1683, so that he was associated with the
great master in many of his most important works. His style is not so graceful as Wren’s, but
partakes more of the heaviness of Vanbrugh. His finest works are Christchurch Spitalfields
(1715), which has a remarkably fine interior, St. George’s Bloomsbury, St. Mary Woolnoth
(1719), which had only been patched up by Wren after the Fire, St. Anne Limehouse (1724),
and St. George’s in the East (1728).

Of these churches only three are illustrated in this work, namely, Christchurch
Spitalfields, which is a parallelogram with aisles, and western tower and spire, and in
many ways shows a marked divergence from Wren’s plans. Its western entrance and
spire are entirely different from anything which preceded them, the latter resembling the
upper part of a Norman or Early English spire. This peculiarly original treatment by
Hawksmoor is still more marked in St. Mary Woolnoth, the interior of which is like the
atrium or covered hall of a classical domestic building, in which a heavy baldachino with
twisted columns, and a sort of imitation tester all in oak (a faint sort of reminiscence of
St. Peter’s at Rome), almost fills the eastern recess. This church formerly possessed galleries,
but when the alterations were carried out by Mr. Butterfield these were removed, and
their fronts stuck upon the side walls in a very meaningless manner. As in all Hawksmoor s
churches, the floor is raised on vaults, considerably above the street level. The interior, in
spite of the alterations, remains a very fine arrangement, and if the central square had
been covered with a small dome on pendentives, it would certainly have been one of the most
original and effective church interiors in London. The baldachino is very curious, and bears
a strong resemblance to that at St. Peter’s, and it is worthy of note that Wren contem¬
plated placing one in St. Paul’s Cathedral. Neither St. George’s in the East or St. Anne’s
Limehouse (a plan of which is given), finished in 1728 and 1724 respectively, call for any
particular remarks, but they are both large and spacious churches. Hawksmoor had his
imitators, and in that most extraordinary building, St. John the Evangelist, Westminister,
Archer, who was the architect (although Sir John Vanbrugh has usually the discredit),
tried to imitate the solidity and massiveness of Hawksmoor’s peculiar style, but failed
lamentably. In so far as the internal arrangements are concerned, St. George’s Bloomsbury
has been so greatly altered that really nothing of the original remains, and the altar,
which stood in its correct liturgical position, in an apse on the east side, has been transferred
to the recess on the north side, while the old oak pews have been cut down and made to
face north. Hawksmoor was rather given to the use of a depressed or elliptical arch, which
one finds in nearly all his churches ; his towers and spires were certainly original, perhaps
more original than beautiful. St. Mary Woolnoth has a most extraordinary western fa9ade,
the upper part of which breaks out into what may be described as a twin tower arrangement,
and St. George’s Bloomsbury has a remarkable pyramidical steeple of diminishing steps,
which is surmounted by a statue, not of St. George, but of King George I. Hogarth’s well-
known print of cc Gin Lane ” gives a view of this steeple, seen above that awful rookery which
then existed and was only cleared away when New Oxford Street was formed. The following
well-known lines refer to this remarkable spire :

“ When Henry the Eighth left the Pope in the lurch

The Protestants made him Head of the Church ;

But George’s good subjects, the Bloomsbury people.

Instead of the church made him head of the steeple.”

Another prominent church architea during the first two decades of the seventeenth
century was James Gibbs, whom we find completing one of Wren’s churches: the upper part
of the tower and spire of St. Clement Danes being his work. His own contributions to the

architecture of London were of no ordinary merit. They possess an amount of originality in
treatment which makes them distinCt both from Wren’s graceful conceptions, and from
Hawksmoor s heavier productions, while in the use of the Orders he certainly showed greater
knowledge than the last-named architect.

Gibbs was born about 1674 at Aberdeen, and after taking his degree of Master of Arts
there (about 1700), he went to Holland, where he studied architecture, and afterwards, by the
help of his patron, the Earl of Mar, he proceeded to Italy, where he continued his studies,
in Rome, under an architect named Garroli. On his return to England he was, through
die influence of the same nobleman (then in the Ministry), employed by the Commis¬
sioners as one of their architects for building the fifty new churches. His principal work
in London was the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, which was commenced in 1720.
This church shows how thoroughly Gibbs was imbued with the Classic spirit, for we here find
the regular Classical portico attached to a church, a feature much affeCted by succeeding
architects, but the first three examples of which are St. Martin’s, by Gibbs, 172c, St. George’s
Hanover Square, by John James, 1724, and St. George’s Bloomsbury, by Hawksmoor, 1731,
all satisfactory and stately enough. Another well-known London church from Gibbs’ hand
is St. Mary-le-Strand, a very beautiful specimen of architecture, the contrast between which
and St. Mary Woolnoth shows the extraordinary divergence between the styles of the two men
— Hawksmoor, vigorous and bold almost to coarseness, and Gibbs, over-refined and delicate,
almost to fussiness. Some may feel inclined to give the palm to St. Mary Woolnoth, not
for its beauty, but for its extreme originality. St. Mary-le-Strand is certainly most advan¬
tageously placed in a very wide part of the Strand, on the site of the old maypole which Pope,
in the “ Dunciad,” alludes to in the well-known lines :

“ Amid that area wide they took their stand,

Where the tall maypole once o’erlooked the Strand ;

But now, so Anne and Piety ordain,

A church collects the saints of Drury Lane.”

The church is still most needed, not so much for the saints, as for the sinners who may yet
be found in its neighbourhood.

Gibbs was equally successful in his civil architecture, as witness the Radcliffe Library at
Oxford, the new buildings at King’s College, Cambridge, and the great quadrangle of St.
Bartholomew’s Hospital, the gateway of which however, towards Smithfield, was not his work.
He died in 1754, and in grateful recognition of his patron, the Earl of Mar, left both money
and estates to his lordship’s son.

St. Giles-in-the-Fields, the work of Henry Flitcroft, may justly be described as a poor
copy of St. Martin’s, but there is considerable merit about the spire, which is original in
treatment. Flitcroft built another church, St. Olave’s Southwark, which is but a poor
production, and the same may be said of most of the churches which followed. They seemed
to get worse and worse, and one has only to point to such buildings as St. Luke’s Old Street,
St. John’s Westminster, by Archer, St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, by Dance (the spire of which,
however, is both graceful and original), St. Botolph’s Aldgate, and St. Botolph’s Bishopsgate,
by James Gold, to see to what utter bathos ecclesiastical architecture could descend, were it
not that beneath this lowest depth, there was still a lower. The last shreds of ecclesiastical

arrangement and tradition were finally abandoned, and the closer a church could be made,
externally to resemble a Greek temple, the better was the critical taste of the period satisfied.

It is not intended in this work to illustrate or further to discuss these later buildings, of
which in London we unfortunately possess so many examples. In many cases the interiors
have been remodelled in an entirely different style to the exteriors, and in one or two instances
the Greek temple remains externally, while the pewed and galleried interior may be Romanesque
or Byzantine, or anything else. Nothing surely could make them worse than they were
originally. Unfortunately this mania for altering the interiors of old churches did not stop
short at those built in the reigns of the two Georges, but was extended with disastrous
results even to the works of Sir Christopher Wren, and several of his churches have had to
bear the indignity of stone tracery inserted in their windows, and of flimsy Gothic woodwork
replacing the old wainscot fittings, with Birmingham brass gas standards and staring tile
pavements, and other gewgaws of the latest “ correct ” mediaeval taste, including stained glass
of wretchedly “ poor ” Gothic drawing and colouring. Good in themselves, they have been
tricked out in a meretricious fashion utterly repugnant to the style in which they were
originally designed, and now present such a pitiable appearance, that it is to be hoped we
have seen the last of this fashion, and that in future they will be left in peace, secure alike from
the hand of the destroyer, and the equally fatal touch of the renovator with a Gothic craze.

WWWBBBBP

S. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

VIEW FROM THE NORTH WEST.

PAUL’S CATHEDRAL

Plate V.

Plate VI

S. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

THE NORTH TRANSEPT.

SLADE

LIBRARY.

SLADE

LIBRARY.

SLfcDE.

PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

Plate X.

S. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL

Plate XI.

Plan of One. Bav of Choir Stalls. South Side. Arrangement of Choir in 1854.

Ground Plan of ST Pauls Cathedral,

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. PAUL.

OF the old cathedral of St. Paul we can say nothing here, for however fascinating its history
may be, and however keen may be the regret felt for its departed glories, which have
been so imperfe&ly delineated by Hollar, but which caused the blind Puritan poet, Milton,
who as an old Pauline must have known it well, to proclaim his love for the

“ High embowed roof
With antique pillars massy proof,

And storied windows richly dight
Casting a dim, religious light ” —

it has past and gone, the greatest and best of all those artistic treasures which London lost in
the Great Fire of 1666, and on its site has arisen a new Cathedral, wonderful, stately, and
magnificent. Wonderful as the culminating effort of the genius of a single architect, and in
that it should have been built in so short a time, under the fostering care of one bishop and
the administrative skill of one master-mason. How great is the contrast between it and that
other colossal structure, the Vatican Basilica of St. Peter’s at Rome, which, magnificent as it
is, scarcely deserves Byron’s eulogistic lines —

“ But thou of temples old, or altars new,
Standest alone, with nothing like to thee,
Worthiest of God.”

St. Peter’s took 176 years to build, and fourteen architeds were employed upon its design and
construction, amongst tbeir names being those “famous for all time, San Gallo, Bramante,
Raphael, Michael Angelo, Giulio Romano, Vignola, Bernini, etc., yet all this wonderfhl array
of talent, helped by the expenditure of ten millions of money, up to the close ot the seventeenth
century (not including the cost of the sacristy and bell towers, mosaics, etc.), did not succeed
in producing a building finer than St. Paul’s. Although it exceeds it in size and in richness
of internal decoration, in external effed it is admittedly inferior, and yet the total cost of St.
Paul’s Cathedral was under one million, and the time occupied in its building, from the first laying
of the foundation stone on June 21st, 1675, to the laying of the last stone on the top o
the lantern in tyro, was exadly thirty-five years. Long before this, the building had been
used for divine service, the choir being formally opened on the occasion of the Peace of
Ryswick in r697, only twenty-two years from the laying of the foundation stone. It may

1 6

be well here briefly to mention the trials which
Wren experienced before any definite plan was
adopted, and the many preparatory schemes,
which are duly set forth in Elmes’s “ Memoir,”
and in the “ Parentalia ” compiled by his son
Christopher, and published by his grandson,

Stephen Wren, and also in Longman’s “History
of the Three Cathedrals dedicated to St. Paul.5’

One cannot be too thankful that the design for
which Wren had a model made (it may still be
seen in the model room in the Cathedral), was
not carried out, for externally it would have
been an architectural failure.

The plan was decidedly clever and original, and almost gives one the impression that it
was designed as a plan only, without any thought as to how the elevation would turn out, and

that the talented designer’s regrets at its
reje&ion were more on account of the
plan, than the elevation, which would
have been unworthy of his genius.
But rejected it was, and some say
through the influence of the clergy,
who desired a plan which would carry
on the traditional Cathedral arrange¬
ment. The fadd is curious that
the addual plan and elevation of his
new design, approved by the King,
and for which a royal warrant was
granted, May 14th, 1675, was, as a
design, absolutely worse than the
first, for in this the central feature
was a low, squat, spreading dome,
surmounted by a high drum, or
stylobate, which carried a secondary
dome, surmounted by a lofty spire
of diminishing oddagonal stages (like
St. Bride’s Fleet Street) ; a com¬
position almost approaching the ab¬
surd, and yet the warrant speaks of
this design as “very artificial, proper
and useful.” In this same document,
permission, or rather “ liberty,” is
given to Wren in the prosecution of his work to “make some variations, rather ornamental
than essential, as from time to time he should see proper, and to leave the whole to his

management. How Wren ever evolved the present Cathedral from that accepted design is a
marvel; he certainly did take considerable liberty, a good deal in the “ essential,” although more
m the “ornamental, for the present plan does not fit dre proposed west elevation signed by the
King. Spence, in his “ Anecdotes,” says that the north and south chapels were added at the
suggestion of the Duke of York (afterwards James II.), to fit the Cathedral for a revival of the
Papist service, and it was the forced addition of these which caused Wren to shed the
traditional tears. The whole anecdote seems unlikely, for any interference from the Duke

„ Romanist, would have been

of York, then an avowed
strongly resented, and the fad:
a consistory court, and a
a few worshippers could be
service, seems to have been
said that the addition of these
building and broke in very
design, but there again one
the critics, for internally the
is a very beautiful feature
carried on the nave by two
have increased the tunnel-like
monotonous. Per-
may not be quite
true, if they had
two feet, the west-
have risen from the
and would have
general effed. It
of time to no¬
remarks of the
points as the
the two orders,
columns, etc.,
them, and are,

glad that Wren employed them, for we know how poor in effed St. Peter s
one order, and Wren realized that his building would not long enjoy the advantage of
standing in the midst of a wide piazza, but that the streets and houses would encroach
upon it on every side ; therefore he was wise to do as he did. One has but to look
at the Cathedral from one of the bridges, or from the Surrey side of the river, to see how
immensely it has gained by the adoption of these two orders. As to the interior, the
only criticism which seems really just, is that the appearance of the four subsidiary arches of
the dome, where the arch breaks into the entablature, dividing it up into detached pieces,

i „n r » . ,o. ftRt-nm that time the surveyor resolved to make no more models

■ There is a significant note in the Parentaha page a 3, * ^ d Jd mbjefled his business many times

or publicly expose his drawings, which, as he had found by exper ,
to incompetent judges.’’

SECTION SHOWING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DOME.

that Wren had to provide for
morning prayer chapel, where
gathered together at the early
forgotten. It has always been
two chapels narrowed the
much upon the beauty of the
feels disposed to disagree with
addition of these two chapels
(Plate VIII.), and to have
bays, or even by one, would
effed:, and would have proved
haps externally they
so happy; but it is
only been set back
ern towers would
ground in mass,
been handsomer in
would be a waste
tice any further
critics, on such
employment of
the coupled
etc. ; we accept
on the whole,
looks with its

is somewhat awkward. This defedt is really a blemish, and is. the weakest part of the design ;
but taking the building as a whole, externally and internally, it is one upon which any nation
or people might justly pride themselves, and is vastly superior to such buildings as the Pantheon,
the Church of the Invalides, the Val de Grace,
the Church of the Sacre Cceur, in Paris, or even
the new Cathedral at Marseilles.

Apart from its stridlly architectural merit,

St. Paul’s Cathedral possesses in its fittings,
such as the carved wood-work and metal-work,
specimens of the handicrafts of the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries marking a distinct school or epoch, which can here be studied better
perhaps than elsewhere. To claim this work as essentially English seems an anomaly on the
face of it, seeing that Grinling Gibbons is supposed to have been a Dutchman and John Tijou a
Frenchman. But was Gibbons a Dutchman? The statement rests solely on the authority of

DETAIL OF STALLS, ENDS, AND SMALL DOORS.

Horace Walpole, whose account of him in the « , r „ .

Evelyn, who knew much more about him and h °f Pamters>” ls veI7 incorred.

anout him, and was the diredt means of bringing him into

notice, mentions nothing about his Dutch extradion, and
the name Gibbons is as distinftly English as Brown, Jones,
- or Robinson. Evelyn intro¬
duced him to Wren, and it is
to his incomparable skill that
we owe the exquisite carving of
the stalls of the choir, and of
the bishop’s throne.

The name of Tijou or Tijon, Tijau
or Tigoue, for it is thus variably spelt, is
certainly a French one, but we know
little or next to nothing about its owner,
beyond the faCt that he executed all the
exquisite grille- work of the choir. Here
again French influence is scarcely felt,
and one has but to contrast this work
and the grilles

CONSOLE SUPPORTING CANOPIES OF DIGNITARIES’ STALLS.
FRONT AND SIDE VIEW.

at St. Paul’s
which enclose the choir of the
abbey church of St. Ouen at
Rouen to note the difference.
Tijou also executed those ex¬
quisite gates to Hampton Court
Palace (now at South Kensing¬
ton Museum), erroneously attri¬
buted to Huntingdon Shaw, and
in these one does trace an in¬
fluence distinctly French. For
St. Paul’s he undoubtedly de¬
signed the ironwork, but English
artificers executed it and stamped
it with a markedly English
character. Gibbons has also
been credited with a good deal
of the stone carving, but most
of this was executed by Thomas
and Edward Strong, Francis
Bird, and Caius Gabriel Cibber
(the father of Colley Cibber),
while the wood-carving in the

Morning Prayer Chapel, and in the Library, was done by Jonathan Maine. Cibber’s work in
stone seems to have been confined principally to the eight great keystones of the arches of

the dome, for each of which he received £35. For the great figure of the phoenix in
the tympanum of the south transept, (18 feet by 9 feet) he charged £ r 06, and these,
with four “censers” at £7 10s. each, four double festoons, and eight cherubim at £13
each, are the only works charged in the books under Cibber s name. Francis Bird s work
consisted of the western tympanum, the Conversion of St. Paul (£650), the panels in the

portico (£75 each),
the west door [£ 300).
Anne and accessory
the Cathedral (re¬
years ago, and re¬
copy) cost ^1,180.
carvers we find the
Latham and Samuel
carving the capitals
for which he received
The large plan
duced from a draw-
by Francis Penrose,
presents the Cathe

TERMINAL TO GATE, GEOMETRICAL STAIRCASE.

and the reliefs over
His statue of Queen
figures in front of
moved some fifteen
placed by a modern
Among other stone-
names of Jasper
Fulks, the last-named
of the west portico,
£60 each,
here given was re-
ing kindly supplied
Esq., M.A., and re-
dral as left by Wren,

showing the return stalls, etc., and the organ screen. There is some doubt whether Wren
intended the organ to be placed in the position it occupies on the plan, for the supporting
arches and columns in the crypt were evidently interpolated to carry the extra weight. It was,
however, in his day the usual position in cathedrals and choirs, but he may at first perhaps

SMALL GRILLES AT BACKS OF STALLS.

only have contemplated an oak screen, and the marble columns being inserted afterwards
necessitated the sub-structures. These marble columns, which now form a kind of internal
porch and gallery to the northern entrance, were the work of Edward Strong, who was paid
£52 tor. for each. There is a curious story to the effeft that Bernard Smith, the builder
of this organ, competed with Renatus Harris for that of the Temple Church, when their
merits were so equal that the question which was the better instrument was submitted to an

open court with counsel on each side, when the , 1

Jefferies, decided in favour of Smith. d S ’ W"° WaS none oldler t*lan Judge

t " *• “f *■

services then instituted proved so successful that iTb f ^ l858’ When ^ Sunday evening

» ft ft. Cathedr.il „ pj,

of the “ Sons of the Cletg,,- „ j « thc fP“ "/ *' “""-I

a u A iu , occasion ot public funerals, the great area of the

dome had rarely been used, as the usual services were entirely confined to the choir Tht
was so enclosed and cut off torn the rest of the church, by reason of the organ screen
and return s ails preventing the area of the dome being used in connexion wihthe choir
services, that the first step necessary to improve matters seemed to the authorities at the time
to be the removal of the organ and the choir screen, with the return stalls. The organ was

then placed in the second bay on the
north side, and the stalls were moved
bodily one bay westward ; the return
stalls were placed on the north and south
sides of the space or bay just westward
of the apse, and the altar-rails were
brought forward so as to enclose them,
thus separating the cathedral dignitaries
from the prebends and minor canons,
the dean himself sitting on the cantoris
side, while the third bay of die choir,
thus left free, was seated for congre¬
gational purposes. It was then found
that the organ was not of much use for
the services under the dome, and another
very large one was built over the south
porch. These alterations, which many
considered unfortunate, in consequence of their complete departure from cathedral precedent,
were effeded between 1858 and i860, while Dr. Henry Milman was dean. The principle on
which they were made, and with which all must agree, was to make the Cathedral more useful
and better fitted for divine worship. Certainly one good thing was then done for the first
time — the Cathedral was warmed ; and, in spite of the Rev. Canon Sydney Smith s bon
mot , made some time previously, when the desirability of such a course was mentioned
£c Warm St. Paul’s ! they might as well set about warming Salisbury Plain ! It was done, and
done effedively.

From i860 to 1870 this alteration held good, but in that year further changes became
absolutely necessary, and the cathedral choir was again altered, and mainly to the present
arrangement. The Nelson and Cornwallis monuments, which had hitherto occupied their
original positions on the north and south sides of the ante-choir, were rernoi ed to other
places; the dignitaries’ stalls were replaced in their proper position, westward of all the others,
but still facing north and south, and the organ was divided and placed over them, thus

SOUTH CHOIR AISLE, LOOKING WEST.

restoring it to a position where it was useful for
a position which is very picturesque, but has the

VE, LOOKING WEST.

choir services and also those under the dome —
effect of still further narrowing the appearance
of the choir, and suggesting a carved beam
connecting the two portions, as at Milan
Cathedral. The whole choir was raised, and
with it, the stalls. The altar, which the flood
of light at the east end rendered almost in¬
visible, was brought forward to the chord of
the apse and considerably raised. Much more
recently a magnificent reredos of rare and
costly marbles has been added, the centre
portion of which recalls Wren’s original idea
for the baldachino, for which he had a model
made. This altar-piece is flanked by curved
wings, connecting it with the first piers of the
choir arcade, and leaving a presbytery behind,
which is now fitted up as the Liddon memorial
chapel. The two easternmost bays of the
choir were separated from the aisle by Tijou’s
beautiful grilles, which were altered to fit their
new position. The old stained -glass Munich
windows, put in at the previous alteration,
were removed to other parts of the Cathedral,
where one can better see how bad they are ;

a new altar was erecfied, of ebony and bronze-
gilt, and the pavement in front was inlaid with
rich marbles. When the present beautiful
mosaic decorations ot the choir walls and
vaulting are completed, the interior ol this
choir will be, for costly and beautiful decoration
and furniture, the richest in Christendom — so
that it may be said, “the glory of this latter
house shall far surpass the former.” It is
devoutly to be wished that a sweep might be
made of some of the tasteless allegories in the
shape of marble monuments, which once pro¬
voked a sneer from a high dignitary of the
Roman obedience : “ Ah, yes, St. Paul’s

Cathedral — a building which has the blessed
Apostles outside and the heathen gods within.”
If that worthy ecclesiastic had but looked at
home he would have found St. Paul’s Cathedral
not singular in this, the fashion of the day,

CHOIR AS COMPLETED, WITH REREDOS.

deplorable as it may be. But happily since that ,, ,

such as Christian faith would diflate mrl r] ■ • C mormments added have been only

Dean Mansel, who was remarkaUe fo ^ aPFove.

extras quiet fun out of any subjefl, utterly free' from niTat^d ^ ^ ^

was being shown round the cathedral by the present Sub de "" v ““‘“i SeVenty’

unmistakable Neptune, trident and all as nor bP; ■ i™"’ Wh° dreW hlS attentlon to an

of a Christian cathedral. “ Well yes ” he said « = F°Per f°r the decoration

in a Protestant church.” ’ 7 ’ *“ Sald> “ “ °dd C° s« th<- ‘ ^dentine formula: ’

1 he mosaic decoration, now in progress and before alluded to, is part of a very beautiful
iconographical tdea due to the genius of W. B. Richmond, A.R.k., and is gradually b W
completed ,n portions as funds permit. In a footnote in the “ Parentalia,” Wren is credited
with having entertained the idea that mosaic work was the best method of decoration, and
of saying that m his judgment that material as employed at St. Peter’s at Rome, was far
superior to painting on account of it being so much more durable, and he proposed sending
to Italy for four of the most eminent workers in that art. ObjedHons were raised on the
score of expense and the time such work would take, and although he fully answered such
Objections, the scheme fell through, and in what manner he intended to use mosaic there is no
evidence to show.

In the Gardner colledtion there is an old print showing the spandrels between the
main arches in the dome filled in with figures of the four Evangelists and their symbols.
This was engraved by William Emmett about 1702, and Wren may probably have approved
of it, but the painting of the dome by Sir James Thornhill, in a series of architefiural
perspectives and figures, in heavy and dark colour, was strongly disapproved by him and
repudiated in a letter to the Commissioners, February 1st, 1710, his words being:
“ Nothing can be said now to remain unperfedled but ... . and painting the cupola, the
directing of which is taken out of my hands, and therefore I hope I am not answerable. . . .
As to painting the cupola, your Lordships know it has been long under consideration, and
that I have no power left me concerning it.” The paintings do possess considerable merit,
but in both tone and design they are unfortunate in the position they occupy.

The mosaics on the vaulting and pendentives of the choir are now fast approaching
completion, and are doubly interesting for their own artistic merit, and also for being genuinely
English work, designed and executed by Englishmen. The peculiarity of the medium
employed is well brought out and contrasts with the smooth almost painted-like effect of the
Italian work in the spandrels of the dome. The two massive candlesticks standing in front of
the altar, on each side, are copied from the originals, of which there are four in the Cathedral
at St. Bavon, Ghent, traditionally said to have once belonged to St. Paul’s Cathedral. The
space behind the reredos is now known as the Jesus Chapel, or the memorial chapel to Canon
Liddon ; the altar-piece is a copy of Cima’s “ Incredulity of St. Thomas in the National
Gallery, and the tomb and recumbent effigy of the deceased canon occupy a position to the
right, in front of the altar.

Allusion has already been made to the lofty and superb reredos erected in the Cathedral
in 1888. The idea intended to be conveyed by the groups of sculpture is that of the
Incarnation, the Redemption (as a central subjefi) and the Resurredtion. The lower

portion forms a basement, with two doors in the curved wings leading to the Jesus Chapel.
These doors are of bronze-gilt and pierced, with angels supporting the arms of the see and
the emblems (the sword, and cross keys) of St. Peter and St. Paul. Ihis basement is
beautifully panelled with coloured marble in a framework of white Parian marble, and
sculptured with festoons of fruit and flowers. Immediately above the pure white marble ol
the gradine, over the altar, is a long low panel of the Entombment, and to the right and left
the Nativity and Resurrection. Both above and below this panel run bands of a darker marble
the whole width of the reredos, the effeCt of which is rather unfortunate, as it seems to cut the
reredos in half. The centre portion contains the Crucifixion, with St. Mary, St. John, St. Mary
Magdalen, St. Mary the wife of Cleophas, and St. Longinus the centurion. This group, the
figures of which are larger than life, is outlined against a coloured marble background
contained within an arch, which springs from a colonnade continued in a curved line on each
side. Immediately in front of this group are two massive twisted columns of Brescia with gilt
bronze wreathing twining up them, and these support an entablature and pediment. The
massiveness of this portion contrasts rather strikingly with the more slender proportions of the
intersecting colonnade and entablature of the curved wings. On the frieze of this massive
centre portion are the words a SIC . DEUS : DILEXI I : MUNDUM in bronze-gilt letters
on a rosso antico ground. Surmounting the pediment is a niche containing figures of the
Blessed Virgin with the Infant Christ, an embodiment of the Incarnation ; and on each side
stand St. Peter and St. Paul and angels. Above this niche on the apex is the figure of
the risen Saviour, some sixty or seventy feet from the ground. At the two extremities of
the curved wings are single figures, that on the left is the Archangel Gabriel, and that on the
right the Blessed Virgin; both look too small for their position. Besides the above-mentioned
figures there are many others in the panels, of angels bearing the instruments of the Passion.
Messrs. Bodley and Garner designed this superb addition to the Cathedral, and it was executed
in London by Messrs. Farmer and Brindley

i5l57;l

ST. CATHERINE CREE,

LEADENHALL STREET.

1 B 9 11 11

1 B

jp ji ' ffl IB

S ®

Vr*

Precedence having been given to the Cathedral Church
of St. Paul, the parish churches will now be considered in
chronological order, as indicated in the Introduction, and
for the reasons there given. This very extraordinary church,
designed by Inigo Jones, is one of the most curious in the
city, and almost deserves a monograph to itself. It is not
only valuable in the history of art, but also for its place and
connection in the ecclesiastical history of this country.

The “ old order changeth,” and nowhere can this change be seen, this transition noted,
better than in this fabric. In plan we still find here the typical mediaeval church, such as was
formerly to be found in many a parish of Old London, and which exists untouched in the
neighbouring parish of St. Andrew Undershaft. Nave and chancel under one roof, aisles pro¬
longed to the extreme east end, a tower at the south-west corner, opening into the nave and
south aisle by arches; in few respedts differing from other churches of the fifteenth century,
and yet if we look closely, we cannot help noting one or two departures from the usual plan.
The tower, for instance, does not entirely fill the south-west angle, and it is entirely inde¬
pendent of the arcade, suggesting that when the church was rebuilt and enlarged, the original
tower had been left, and only recased and altered externally. The arcade again is not equally
spaced, the last bay being much narrower ; and another striking peculiarity is that the north
aisle suddenly narrows to only half its width for the last two bays westward. The irregu anty
of the site probably had much to do with this, bounded as it was by a narrow lane, anything
but parallel with the eastern boundary. At present there is only one entrance, that under t e
tower, but another existed at the east end of the north aisle. Encroachments up to the very
walls have robbed the church of this, and have also considerably darkened the great east
window, and blocked those at the ends of the aisles.

2 6

The piers or columns are not moulded, but are columns of the Composite order,
carrying semicircular arches, the soffites of which are coffered with a circular flower in
the centre of each coffer; the arches have well-moulded architraves, and above them runs
a cornice the lower mouldings of which mitre with the architraves. Above the cornice is a
lofty and well-proportioned clerestory, the windows of which, as also those of the aisles, are
peculiar. They are of three lights with cinque-foiled heads ; the centre light in each case is
higher, and a square-headed moulding breaks round them ; the cills are splayed, and between
each is a square pilaster with a boldly
moulded cap and base, springing from
corbels of which not two are alike,
and these corbels partly occupy the
spandrels between the arches. (Plate
XIII.) From the caps of these
pilasters spring the vaulting ribs ; the
vault itself is very flat in seCtion, and
in the centre of each compartment
is a large boss or centre flower with
the arms of one of the City Com¬
panies, Goldsmiths, Fishmongers,

Merchant Taylors, etc., in high relief,
coloured and gilt. The vaulting
of the aisles is quadripartite with
moulded wall, diagonal and ridge
ribs, springing from corbels only.

The vaulting of the two bays forming
the chancel is much richer.

The great east window is a very
fine composition, consisting of a
wheel or rose contained in a square,
with the corners filled with tracery,
separated by a horizontal transom
from five lower lights with cinque-
foiled heads, in form recalling slightly
the magnificent rose window which
once closed the eastern perspective of Old St. Paul’s. Some of the glass in this window is
early eighteenth century, being the gift of Sir Samuel Stanier, who was Lord Mayor in the
first year of the reign of George I. ; some glass in the rose itself may be earlier still, dating
probably from 1628. The lower lights have been subsequently filled in with figure subjects
and heraldry. The oak reredos below has been considerably altered. Originally it had a
painted perspective of columns with cherubim and seraphim, and full-length figures of Moses
and Aaron, surmounted by the royal arms. The still earlier one, of Laud’s time, was of Bermuda
cedar, and the rails were removed during the Civil War. The area within the rails was paved
with black and white marble. All this work was probably executed subsequent to the reign of

1 o each of the arches there is

Queen Anne. _ _ _ _ aiulcs

and here again, as in the corbels, much graceful \ ^ t!0"! WhlCh °CCUrS 011 both sides>
their treatment. On three of these hey sLes 7 u n pkyed “ the rariet7 of

this carving work deserves study, or hZ TaZ H ^°' A“

above the average. 7 ™ the deS1Sner was P°— d lability far

KEY-STONES AND CORBELS.

Another most curious feature in this church is the font, with its contemporary
carved and gilt oak cover, which for quaintness and quiet harmony of proportion is
unrivalled. Internally, the seats have been lowered, but the oak wainscoting has been
retained, the chancel has been stalled, and the old carving inserted. Two sword-rests, of
similar design, are affixed to the two front seats, and there is a very beautiful oak oor-

case now forming the entrance to the vestry, but which originally screened the door at
the east end of the north aisle. Externally the church is very curious, with its mullioned
windows, low tower, and battlements, which alone would arrest the steps of any lover of
architecture, yet they afford no indication of the beauties within.

It should be mentioned
that there is a small organ
gallery, access to which blocks
both the west door and west
window, if ever they were in¬
tended to be of use, which is
doubtful. The organ case itself
is very richly carved, and pro¬
bably dates from 1686, when
the church was repaired and
beautified.

The history of this church
deserves to be recorded. Matilda,
eighth in direCt descent from
Alfred the Great, and tenth from
Egbert, the first King of England,
married Henry I., by which marriage
Henry considerably augmented and
consolidated his power. She herself
was the daughter of Malcolm III. of
Scotland, by his wife, Margaret, the
sainted Queen, sister of Edgar
Atheling, and was much beloved by
the people of England. About 1108
she founded the magnificent Norman
priory of the Holy Trinity Aldgate,
just within the walls, and to do this
and to get sufficient ground for the
ereCtion of this huge priory church
and its dependencies, four parishes
already existing were united, St. Mary
Magdalene, St. Michael, St. Catherine,
and Holy Trinity, and the parishioners
were allowed the use of the nave of
the Priory Church of the Austin Canons. This led to inconvenience, and the result was that
a church was built in the cemetery of the priory, and called St. Catherine Cree, an abbreviation
of Christchurch, by which the priory was more generally known. At the Dissolution, unlike
the other two fine sister churches of the Austin Canons in London (St. Mary Overie and St.
Bartholomew Smithfield), Christchurch, the finest of the three, was entirely destroyed, and the

tale church of St. Catherine passed with the other possessions of the prior,, to Thomas Lord
Audley, but eventually the parish, oners managed to regain their own. fa l'6a8 it had ^
so ruinous that it was deeded to rebuild it. Inigo Jones was then the only architea of
repute, and although no documentary evidence is at present forthcoming to substantiate the
statement, there is but httle doubt, from points of resemblance to ' other well-known and
authenticated works of his, that he was the architea. Laud was then Bishop of London
and in that capacity consecrated this church on January 16th, 1630. As already men¬
tioned in the Introduftion, that prelate exerted his influence to maintain the continuity of
the Church, not only in dofinne, but in the visible fabric,
and this church was the natural outcome. The ceremonies
he used, which were no more than the ordinary consecration
services, aSually formed one of the articles of his impeach¬
ment. Prynne’s garbled version of these would
be almost grotesque in its ludicrousness, were it
not that it led to Laud’s martyrdom on Tower
Hill, on the 10th of January, 1645, fifteen years
afterwards, and on the same day that the use
of the Book of Common Prayer was decreed
to be felony by that paramount power which the
so-called House of Commons had arrogated
to itself. For this reason the church of
St. Catherine Cree becomes inseparably
linked with the history of the Church and
nation, and possesses more than ordinary
interest. The monuments are interesting ;
a very fine one of Sir Nicholas Throck¬
morton, who died in 1570, was evidently
saved from the old church. He was

ambassador from Elizabeth to the court
of France, and some curious letters are
preserved which passed between him and
Cecil, in regard to the ugly rumours which
he had heard, and about which he wanted information respeding the death, or murder, of
Amy Robsart, Countess of Leicester. The monument to Richard Spencer, Turkey Merchant,
1667, and the Cheney monument, both mural, are very good and charmingly designed. The
inscriptions are as follows :

T . . a/t c* C nthprinp Cree. “here rests in hope of a blessed

Inscription on Spencer Monument , ot. Catherine u

* * r. tttrkfy merchant, whose change from mortall

RESURRECTION THE BODY OF RICHARD SPENCER ESQ., TURKEY Kr,onN

d „t d A1.To ri»/flNrt 1667 jETAT CO. WHILE HE LIVED ON EARTH REASON

TO MORTALITY COMENC ON SEP 3 AN DMNI IOO7 & 5

„„p,rahcE HIS MEASURES GRAVITIE AND DISCRETION
AND RELIGION WERE HIS RULES JUSTICE AND TEMPERANC HIMSELF

,nmIt ur,5T ACCFPTABLE TO NONE INJURIOUS. TO HlM&bLP
HIS ORNAMENTS. HE WAS TO MANY HELPFUL TO M CHANGES yHE gy ATE THE DREADFUL

AND FRIENDS CONSTANT. AFTER HE HAD SEENE TH T[oN QF THE CITy „Y FIRE HE PIOUSLY

TRYUMPS OF DEATH BY PESTILENCE THE ASTOPHSHIN ^ p^TH 0F CHRIST IN COMMUNION

LAMENTED THE MISERIES AND THEN IN PEACE AND CHARI

HENEY MONUMENT.

3°

OF THE CHURCH HE FINISHED HIS COURSE AND LEFT BEHIND HIM A GOOD NAME A VERTUOUS EXAMPLE A
DEARE WIFE AND THREE DAUGHTERS. WHO FOR THE HIGH ESTEEME AND INTIRE AFFECTION TO HER
DECEASED HATH ERECTED THIS MONUMENT AND MEMORIAL TO POSTERITIE. IF WEALTH NOR WORTH
NOR FRIENDS NOR PARTS CAN RESCUE FROM DEATH’S KILLING DARTS THEN MIND THY DOOM AND PASSING
BY BE WISE IN TIME PREPARE TO DIE.”

Inscription on the Cheney Monumetit , St. Catherine Cree. £< spe laetissimae

RESURRECTIONIS. IN ADYTU & NAVE HUJUS ECCLESIAE SEPULTA JACENT CORPORA BARTHOLOMEI
ELLNOR GENEROSI ET ALICIAE UXORIS EJUS RICHARDI CHENEY ET BARTHOLOMEI. IN QUORUM
OMNIUM MEMORIAM ANNA CHENEY, VIDUA VINCA FILIA ET HAERES DICTORUM BARTHOLOMEI AUT ET
ALICIAE RELICT A DICT RICHARDI PATRIS ET MATER DICTORUM RICHARDI ET BARTHOLOMEI FILIORUM
HOC MONUMENTUM IN AESTISSIMA POSUIT.

PRAEDICT

RICHARDUS PATER

2 7°

JUNII 1624

29 j

RICHARDUS FILIUS

AB HAC LUCE

JUNII |

l62C

AN°

BARTHOLOMEUS FILIUS

IMP D 4 VTT

DIE

AUGUSTlJ

AETAT1S

BARTHOLOMEUS (AMIs)?

IINIjKA V 1 1

1 6°

OCTOBRIS

1636

ALICIAE

2°

AUGUSTI

1637

67 j

There is a curious doorway at the south-east angle of the church, built by William
Avenon, 1631, which has one of those recumbent figures, a skeleton in a shroud, to remind
one of mortality, and in this church is preached, on the 16th of Odtober, the Lion sermon,
commemorating the narrow escape of Sir John Gayer from a lion, 1643, and the Flower
sermon.

ST. PAUL CO VENT GARDEN.

It will be hardly necessary to give a detailed
description of this church for the reasons
stated in the Introduction. The apparent
discrepancy as to the dates of its construction
and consecration has probably arisen from a
confusion between the latter event and its
being made a parish church, which took place
upon the petition of the inhabitants. At a
council held at Whitehall April 6th, 1638,
the king being present, the church was said
to have been built by Francis, Earl of
Bedford, but, in consequence of disagree¬
ments with the Vicar of the mother parish
of St. Martin s in the Fields, it had remained unconsecrated. It was decided that the petition
be heard and the church consecrated forthwith, and to be a chapel of ease to the mother
church until such
time as the Earl and
the Vicar of St.

Martin’s had settled
their differences.

The date of the deed
extracted from the
principal Register of
the Bishop of London
is September 26 th,

1638, and it is
quaintly worded,
commencing : “In
the name of God,

Amen. Know all
men present and to

come that I, Francis,

Earl of Bedford, for

me and my heirs have offered up, in memorial of the Blessed Apostle St. Paul,” etc., etc.
In 1645 Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled constituted it a parish church, totally

32-

separate from St. Martin’s in the Fields, and so it remained until an adt was passed in 1657,
which altered the status of it ; but this adt was rescinded at the Restoration, and another
passed in 1660, reconstituting it a parish church, and the patronage, which had been given to
the Vicar of St. Martin’s, was then vested in William, Earl of Bedford, his heirs and assigns.
The building, although stately, can scarcely be called ecclesiastical in appearance. When first
built the interior was richly decorated, and contained some contemporary stained glass. In
1727 Lord Burlington restored the portico to its primitive form at an expense of three or four
hundred pounds, which shows that alterations had already been made that had probably cost
the parishioners twice as much to effedt. The detached porticoes or gates which flanked the
main portico, and gave access to the churchyard, were very simple, but of charming proportion,
and there are entrances to the churchyard from Henrietta Street on the south, and King Street
on the north, with very good scroll iron gates. Sir Peter Lely, the artist, was buried in the
church. Several adtors are interred in the churchyard, including Edwin, Macklin, King,
and others.

THE STEEPLE.

ST. MARY-LE-BOW,

WITH ST. PANCRAS SOPER AND ALL HALLOWS

HONEY LANE.

St. Mary of the Arches, as this church was originally called, now represents
the church of the three united parishes above-named, St. Pancras, and All
Hallows, not having been rebuilt after the Fire. It is difficult to account for
the pre-eminence enjoyed by this, over all other parochial
churches, except from its being placed in the most prominent
and busy part of the mediffiyal city, “ in Chepe,” and from its
tower having been rung out nightly the signal for the closing
of the shops, and release of the ’prentices. In 1469 the Court
of Common Council ordered this to be rung at nine instead
of at eight o clock, and if this “ late ringing ” was the one
’prentices complained of, they did so with some amount of
justice, for their working hours must have been fearfully long,
especially as our ancestors were early risers, but let us hope
that the tocsin sounded earlier for them. No one was held a
true citizen unless born within the sound of these bells, and
they are interwoven in the pretty legend of Whittington, four
times Lord Mayor.

This was the first of the thirteen churches exempted from
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, and placed under
the care of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and called
“ peculiars.” The Archbishop’s Court was called the Court
of Arches, from being held here, and here, to this day, the
bishops of the southern province have to take the oath of
their allegiance to the primatial chair of Canterbury, before
their own enthronization elsewhere.

Another curious fa£t is that if the sovereign desired to
see the pageants of the various companies, it was from a
gallery eredted in front of this church, towards Cheapside, that
it was viewed. Few of the thousands who daily pass and
repass the church are aware that beneath it exists a relic of
Norman London, in the shape of a beautiful crypt, over
which Wren built his church, which does not, however, stand

exactly over it, for he extended his building to the south and PLAN OF THE CRYPT.

west beyond the walls, and the crypt evidently marked the size and position of the older
church. In plan it has a central nave, subdivided into three aisles by six cylindrical detached
columns, with cushion caps. The twelve compartments or bays thus have a plain groined
vault without ribs, and flanking this central compartment, divided by walls of immense
thickness, pierced with plain arches, are aisles, north and south, also vaulted. The north aisle
is coterminous with the central portion, but the south aisle is prolonged westward to the
full extent of the present church. Wren had to break through the central portion in order
to carry up the foundations for his walls above, which rather destroys its symmetry, and in
building his superb tower, he found, at a level even lower than the crypt, a Roman causeway,

ROMAN CAUSEWAY, EIGHTEEN FEET SECTION THROUGH NORMAN

BELOW PRESENT LEVEL. CRYPT.

which was so solid that he used it as a foundation, eighteen feet below the present level.
Judging from the gradual rise of the ground, the Norman crypt could not originally have
been very much underground, and it was well lighted, so that the name of St. Mary-le-Bow,
or St. Mary of the Arches, was particularly applicable.

Some derive the name, not from anything underground, but from the four curious bows
or arches which sprung from each lofty corner pinnacle of the tower, and carried a central
lantern or pinnacle, like Wren’s own church of St. Dunstan in the West; but as it was
called St. Mary de Arcubus before the tower was built, this derivation is absurd.

This church, which was one of the first to be rebuilt, is rather irregular and curious ;
the church proper has a central nave, with an elliptical plaster vault very richly panelled, and
with north and south aisles, the latter being slightly the narrower. They are divided from
the church by three arches on each side, with vaulting concentric with the arches. Attached

A a ^ a ^ar^e vestry> which opens at its western end into a roomy vestibule,

^ C . ^ t. 6 ower stage of the tower, and serving as a porch, with entrances north and
west 1 he interior has been modernized, and the lofty oak altar-piece, with its seven
C^S,_CUt ^own to show the east window, which is now filled with modern stained glass.
It is stalled for a choir ; the organ has been brought down from the west gallery and placed at
t le east end, and all the galleries have been removed, which makes the church look rather
bare, but has made it much lighter, and has generally improved the look of the interior.

Within the recollection of many it was a
very dark church, having no windows
on the north side, while the narrow lanes
on the south, west, and east, with their
lofty warehouses, prevented very much
light from entering, and the principal
windows were blocked by the galleries
and altar-piece, and the principal light
came from the clerestory. The seats
have all been lowered and made regular
and uniform. The font, which is of
marble, is not so good as many others.

Externally the church, where one can
see it, is of red brick, except the east side,
and this brick, up to a few years back,
was covered with cement. Its chief
glory is the superb tower and spire
(Plate XIV.), but as the plate does not
show all of it from the ground, one of the
grand doorways which occupy the lowest
stage is here given, to show that we need
not go to Genoa or any other Italian
city to find a beautiful doorway, since
our own Cheapside can show one to rival
any foreign example.

Although the church and tower were
commenced in 1671, the spire was not
completed until 1680; the masons’ names are recorded as Tompson and Cartwright. In
the last repairs, the circular peristyle of columns round the lower part of the spire, which
were originally of Portland stone, were reconstructed of granite, and it will be interesting
to see which of these two materials proves the more lasting in the London atmosphere. The
spire is surmounted by a vane in the form of a flying dragon, and whether seen from the east
or from the west, whether outlined against the flaming glory of the setting sun, or against the
pure light of early dawn, the spire of St. Mary-le-Bow is one of the most beautiful objects
that the master-mind of man ever conceived, and as a vision of beauty it is a joy, and will be
so for ever, if “ ever ” may be applied to things finite and temporal.

THE CHURCH OF ST. STEPHEN WALBROOK

WITH ST. BENET SHEREHOG (1676-1678).

This very beautiful church, one of the earliest
to be ere&ed so soon as the accumulated rubbish
of the Great Fire could be removed and the
ancient site cleared, would alone be a monument
of Wren’s architectural genius and taste, had he
not designed the Cathedral and other churches to
more fully establish and confirm his reputation.

The most ancient of the three parish churches
of St. Stephen appears to have been on a different
site, and the patronage had been given to the Priory of St. John at Colchester by Eudo, a
retainer of Henry I.; but in 1429 it was rebuilt on the present site, on ground left for that
purpose by William Stondon or Standen, Lord Mayor in 1392, and Lord Mayor Chicheley
laid the first stone, but the church was not completed until 1439. Several chantries were
afterwards added. It has been supposed that Wren designedly made this an exceedingly beautiful
interior on account of its immediate vicinity to the Mansion House, but, unfortunately for that
theory, when the church was first built no Mansion House existed, but was ereCted subsequently,
partly on the site of the ancient stocks market. The exterior was so very little seen that Wren
concentrated his efforts, so far as concerned the exterior, on the tower and spire. (Plate XV.)
The interior, as shown on the accompanying plan, is very simple in arrangement, and nowhere
else could one find a simple parallelogram, eighty-two feet six inches in length by about seventy-
five feet in width, so admirably arranged. This area, roughly speaking, is divided into five
aisles, the centre being the widest, and the two outer ones the narrowest, but after the second
bay from the west the two centre rows of columns (that is, four columns) are absent, and the
remainder worked into an o&agon, surmounted by a dome carried on pendentives. The central
aisle, which is lofty, has a groined ceiling, and forms, with the single bays of the transepts and
choir, a cruciform arrangement ; to this loftier portion of the church there is a clerestory,
while the ceiling over the two outer aisles is flat. The dome itself is surmounted by a lantern
light, and is coffered horizontally, in four compartments, and divided vertically by sixteen
bands, but in the second range of panels the central vertical band is omitted, thus forming a
larger panel, which is filled in with circular wreath-work and a large central flower, the band
again reappearing in the two upper ranges. By this arrangement the monotony of a series of
equal-sized coffers, diminishing to the centre of the dome, is avoided. The pendentives are
also ornamented with triangular panels of wreath-work starting from a central shield-like

SLADE

L I E R-.. R Y

ornament, and the whole of this plaster work is of exceedingly bold projecftion, and carefully
modelled. Above runs a circular cornice, carried on small trusses, with a coffered flower
between each, and from this cornice rises the dome, which is nearly a semicircle. The groined
ceiling over the nave is divided by a band of bold scrollwork, and at the intersection
is a finely moulded circular flower. The columns are of the Corinthian order, and support a
rich entablature, of which the frieze is decorated with acanthus leaves, alternately close
and open raffled. The first member of the cornice is egg and dart, the second perfefily
plain, unsupported by trusses, and of a very moderate proje&ion, the top member only
being enriched. The soffites of the eight arches supporting the dome have each the same
bold scroll ornament as the transverse division between the two bays of the nave, and a
small cherub with folded wings forms the keystone. Originally the columns had lofty
octagonal bases of oak, but when the high pews were removed, under Mr. Penrose’s direction,
these lofty stilted bases looked absurd, and he substituted square stone ones, probably
returning to Wren’s original idea, for in the early prints illustrating this church they are
all undoubtedly shown as square. The high pewings have given way to light open seats,
but the lofty wainscoting round the walls has been retained, and the central carved pediment
over the altar-piece, which was removed when West’s large painting of “ The Stoning
of St. Stephen,” (which now occupies the north wall of the transept,) was placed there, has
been restored. The east window has been opened out again and filled with stained glass, and
several other windows have been similarly treated, as to which little can be said— by way of
commendation.

The altar-piece is richly executed, and the old altar remains ; it is semicircular in shape,
and very low and mean-looking. The altar-rail is also semicircular. There are no ornaments
on the altar, nor even a decent cloth, while in the place of altar candlesticks there are two gas
brackets with glass shades. In Hatton’s “New View of London” (1708), he describes
the altar-piece as “ adorned with 2 columns their Architrave Frise and cornish of the
aforesaid order, on the cornish are the Queen’s arms (Anne’s) with supporters carved gilt and
painted between 2 lamps standing 1 at each end of the pediment. The Intercolumns
are the Commandments done in gold on black between the pourtraitures of Moses and Aaron
and under a cherubim and these under a glory, without the columns are the Creed and Lord’s
prayer done in black on gold each under the figure of a dove descending above which are
two shields with compartments and festoons,” etc., etc. The shields alluded to were probably
those of Chicheley and Standen. The description of this altar-piece is given rather fully here,
because it may apply to many other of the City churches, and there will be no occasion to
repeat these details when describing them. The organ, with its finely-carved case (Plate
XVII.), fills up nearly the whole west wall, and with its gallery and supporting columns, forms
a very rich and beautifully designed composition. When Hatton wrote his notes there was
no organ, only the gallery and door-case; the organ was built by England in 1765.

The font, which is of white marble, is of the usual vase or baluster pattern, but
is surmounted by a wonderful oak cover, beautifully carved in panels and wreaths, and cherubs’
heads, terminating with an ogee-shaped top, round the base of which are grouped eight little
figures, probably representing the Christian graces and virtues. (Plate XIX.) The pulpit also is
very richly carved, and is surmounted by a superb sounding-board. (Plate XVIII.) The old

brass branches remain ; the floor has been concreted all over, and covered with mosaic tessera:.
In the “Transaftions of the Royal Institute of British Architefts,” new series, vol. vi.,
is a very interesting communication on this church from the President, Mr. F. C. Penrose, m
which he sets forth the wonderful harmonic proportions of this truly beautiful and unique
building, the real secret of its beauty. This he has worked out very carefully, but he
adds that Wren was not a slave to these proportional numbers, and did not hesitate to depart
from them when he had sufficient reasons for so doing. He makes known the remarkable
faft, which the eye would never detea, that the oaagon is not a true one.

Among the notable interments in the old church were Sir Rowland Hill, of Hodnet,
Salop, the first Protestant Lord Mayor of London, in 1549; and Dr. Owen, Physician
to Henry VIII.

ST. MICHAEL CORNHILL.

The patronage of many of the City
churches was in the hands of the
large abbeys and priories — West¬
minster, St. Albans, Evesham, the
Priory of the Holy Trinity, St. Mary
Overie, St. Helen Bishopsgate, and
many others, possessed the advowsons
of two or more. St. Michael Cornhill
belonged to the Abbey of Evesham
from 1133 to 1503. In the first-
mentioned year Alnothus, the priest
who then possessed the advowson,
conveyed it to the abbot and convent.
Abbot Reynold and his monks con¬
veyed it to one Sperling, a priest,
together with all the land which they
had there, for which he was to pay annually one mark, and to find the abbot in lodging, salt,
water and fire, when he came to London. This probably was only for Sperling’s life, as
the patronage was still held by them until 1503. Soon after this it was in the possession
of Elizabeth Peake, widow, by whom it was, in 1518, conveyed to the Worshipful Company
of the Drapers, who still present to it. The old church, which is described by Stow as “ fair
and beautiful,” was open on the north side to Cornhill, but in the reign of Edward VI.,
on the suppression of the chantries and sale of their lands, the churchyard, which was called
“ the green churchyard,” was allowed to be built on, and soon four tenements greatly darkened

the church, and caused other annoyances. On the south side of the church was a fair cloister
surrounding a burial garth, in which was placed a pulpit cross, not unlike the one at St. Paul’s
Cathedral, and from which sermons were ordered to be preached. Over the cloisters were
lodgings for the choir, as the daily mass was sung here musically. At the west end of
the church stood a very stately tower, of which a representation still exists. This tower had
been built in 1421, and had a fine peal of bells, one of which, called the “ Rus ” (from
the donor’s name), was rung nightly at curfew. It had four lofty corner pinnacles, a leaden
spire, with a very fine traceried window lighting the church, and it must have been one of the
finest in the mediaeval City. Long before the Great Fire the choristers’ lodgings had been
turned into almshouses, the chantries destroyed, and many of the fair tombs demolished, while
much of the property which had been left for charitable use was diverted and appropriated by
private persons. This fine church must have contained at least seven altars. Robert Fabian,
Alderman of London, and author of the famous “ Chronicle,” was buried here, and Stow
mentions the graves of both his own father and grandfather, and many other persons of more
or less note. The Great Fire swept over the whole of it, and its departed glories now
are memories only. It was not until 1672 that the present building was taken in hand by
Wren, but only the body of the church and aisles were then dealt with ; the fine western tower
was not built until sixty years after the Fire, and was not finished until 1721 according
to most accounts ; indeed Elmes, in his “ Life of Wren,” says 1722, which was the year
preceding Wren’s death, and it would therefore have been his very last work, completed in the
ninetieth year of his age j yet it is, both in design and proportion, as bold and as vigorous a
composition as any he had ever produced, and it was produced at a time when he was living in
the cold shade of distrust, a vidlim to the petty spite and open attack of those in high favour
at the Court of George I. Pope, in the Dunciad, refers to this in the following lines.

“ See under Ripley rise a new Whitehall,

While Jones’ and Boyle’s united labours fall,

While Wren with sorrow to the grave descends.

Gay dies unpensioned with a hundred friends.”

It is not improbable that Wren built his new church of St. Michael very much on the lines
of the old one, if not a&ually upon the walls of it. The plan and arrangement is essentially
mediaeval. It has a nave and chancel with north and south aisles, the latter not continued
quite to the east end. The nave has four bays, the tower is at the west end, opening into the
nave, and, so far as the lower part is concerned, may possibly be the old tower of 1421
recased and altered. When Hatton wrote, in 1708, he mentions the church having been
destroyed in 1666, “ except the tower,” which probably was patched up and made to do
duty until rebuilt by Wren, as described above. Maitland’s view of this church is very curious,
but, like all his illustrations of the churches, it cannot well be relied upon. The full-page
illustration of the west view of the church in his “ History and Survey of London ” shows the
aisles continued westward so as to include the tower, and flanked on each side, north and
south, with lofty porches or vestibules of the same height as the aisles. If this representation
be correct, these vestibules have long since disappeared. Over the Doric columns (Hatton
says “ Tuscan ”) and arches there is a clerestory of circular windows, four on each side, and the

4°

south aisle was also lighted with circular windows, as shown in Godwin’s view, and there was a
large circular window at the east end, with another, smaller, at the west end. The north aisle
had blank windows only, which were inserted opposite, to correspond with the south side.
Hatton makes no mention of these windows being circular, and from his description we gather
that they were not so ; he says, “ they are adorned with ranges of columns all of the Corinthian
order, with entablatures and arches, and all painted in perspective. The pews were of oak, and
the church was wainscoted in the same, eight feet high. The pulpit was adorned with a
cornish , and had enrichments of cherubim and a lamp.” He goes on to say that “ the
altar-piece had two columns with entablature and pediment of the Corinthian order, the
columns were painted Flake stone colour and the rest olive colour. On each side of the columns
are the two tables of the Decalogue, between the portraits of Moses and Aaron, finely painted
under a Seraphim between two Cherubims (Hatton’s Hebrew is shaky), and as many festoons.
The cornish and pediment are adorned with cantilevers, all which enrichments are gilt with
gold. In the window above this are the Queen’s arms, painted on the glass, which aperture is
adorned with a scarlet festoon curtain, painted as edged with a gold fringe. On the north and
south sides of the altar is a spacious pied droit , and another on the south side painted, and a
chalice, paten, incense pot, Aaron’s budded rod, and the pot of manna, etc., painted. On the
roof over the table is a glory appearing in clouds, painted and gilt, some of whose rays
are about eight feet in length. At the east end of the south aisle are painted the Drapers’
arms on the glass of the window there. At the west end of the church is a handsome wainscot
door-case adorned with two columns, and their entablament of the Corinthian order enriched
with festoons, and over that a pretty organ gallery; this was done in 1688.” The roof is
groined both over nave and aisles, and that over the chancel has a barrel vault.

Malcolm describes the altar as “ raised on three steps above the chancel, and that again
one step above the nave, and that an iron railing incloses the inner, which is most exquisitely
carved , and that the pulpit is an absolute goblet , the inlaid work and carving on which
deserves every commendation, and that the font is very plain and the organ very handsome.”
In 1790 the side windows were made circular, the roof was covered with copper instead of
lead, a new circular pulpit and reading-desk, and the following fittings were put in : — two new
stoves and chimneys (how redolent of the dark ages when George III. was king), new iron
railing to the altar (probably cast instead of the wrought-iron one), twelve new brass branches,
and the velvet and cloth entirely new.

Wren’s superb tower, soaring high above even the high buildings of the modern Cornhill,
still stands, and the church internally, so far as its columns and arches and vaulted roof
are concerned, is yet in existence, but all these beautiful fittings of his time, and the less tasteful
ones of 1790, have been swept away, and the whole of the interior has been remodelled,
terribly out of harmony either with the tower or with Wren’s architeaure. This was done
many years ago, under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott, and beautiful as some of the
work is, and sensible as one must be of the spirit in which it was carried out, in order that
everything should be of the best and richest that money and talent could procure, one cannot
but deplore that all this should have been wasted, in giving us an interior which is neither
Gothic nor Classic, neither Italian nor Wrennian, but merely a compound of painted and gilded,
carved and bedizened, incongruity. From the half French, half Italian, entrance porch, to the’

>. MARY- AT-H ILL

THE ORGAN GALLERY.

east wall, there is nothing to remind us of the English Art of the seventeenth century ; all is
altered, all is changed, and unfortunately the example set here, by the hand of a great master,
has been copied in other of the City churches, by imitators who did not possess a tithe of
Scott’s genius or taste. Stone tracery put into seventeenth-century windows, Minton’s tiles,
heavy coloured glass, and brass twisted Birmingham gas-fittings have disfigured many an
interior, and most unfortunately much of this mischief is now irreparable. St. Michael’s,
which is 87 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 35 feet high, narrowly escaped destruction in a
dreadful fire which burnt down Exchange Alley in 1748.

1 I 57 I

ST. MARY-AT-HILL,

WITH ST. ANDREW HUBBARD.

Sancta Maria ad Montem, for thus was it anciently
called, possesses one of Wren’s most charming interiors.
There never was much of a mountain, the eminence on
which it stands being more in the nature of a molehill,
for the declivity down to Billingsgate is not very steep,
and the present levels are not much altered from the
ancient. The church stands considerably to the east of
where the Great Fire commenced, yet the flames crept
back against the wind, and partially destroyed this, and
the neighbouring church of St. Andrew Hubbard, which
was never rebuilt, the parish being annexed to St. Mary-at-Hill. We know from various
accounts that the old church, which was of ancient foundation, possessed nave and aisles, and
western tower, and that the aisles had been added subsequently to the nave. It possessed at
least seven altars — the high altar dedicated to St. Mary, and others to St. Thomas, St. Edmund,
St. Catherine, St. John Baptist, St. Stephen, St. Christopher, and St. Anne. The north aisle
was commenced in 1487, and the south in 1500, the kitchen of the Abbot of Waltham’s
house, which adjoined, being pulled down to make room for it.

Immediately after the Great Fire steps were taken to rebuild so much of this church as was
injured. The tower and side walls, as also the west wall with its windows, being almost intact,
Wren only cleared the old interior and constructed this, certainly one of his most beautiful,
leaving the old windows and tower. The church is nearly square in plan, slightly longer
from east to west, and divided by four columns in the centre into a Greek cross. The com¬
partments forming nave, choir, and transepts, have plain arched ceilings, and at the intersection
there is a prettily-designed cupola, carried on pendentives. The ceilings over the four square
compartments forming the aisles are flat, the plaster work is boldly designed, and the cornices
are of good projection. In Hatton’s “ New View,” he speaks of the north and south windows

being “of the Gothic order, evidently the old ones,” and adds that ‘‘the spacious window over
& r j nf tlip workman s own invention. (Plate

the altar-piece is adorned with pilasters of an ord other Churches-St.

XXI.) This simple plan was also carried out by Wren m se e

Anne and St. Agnes Aldersgate, St. Martin Ludgate, and St. George Botolph Lane, bu none
are so successful as this. Nondescript is the only term that can be applied to the order employed
for the internal columns, but it is very good and effective in its free treatment. Hatton calls
it “ of no order at all, but a specie partly composed of the Donck and Corinthian.

In Maitland’s “ View” the old tower and west end of the church is shown. The tower,
which resembled very many others, was a low squat one of four stages, with an o&agonal turret
at the north-west angle carried well up above the parapet, and on the roof of the tower was
a lantern of timber and lead, surmounted by a vane. All this quaintly pi&uresque part of the
church was altered at the commencement of the present century, into the existing flat ana
uninteresting work of brick with stone quoins. The extension of the aisles westward beyond
Wren’s work gives roomy vestibules, with north and south doors. The only external part of
the church visible is the east end, which abuts on the lane called St. Mary Hill ; this is of
Portland stone, and shows a flat central gable and horizontal sides. In the centre is a blocked
window of three divisions, the centre arched and the sides flat, with an entablature over. The
main cornice is broken in the centre to allow the insertion of a semicircular window, Venetian
in type, and the pediment is also broken, the top of the window being carried up into it. A
quaint clock projects on a beam from this front, and is well seen both up and down the lane.
The vestry, a long panelled room, which has a good chimney-piece, is at the south-east corner.

The chief glories of this church are its wonderfully beautiful fittings, which have
fortunately suffered very little from alteration, and to which has been added a good deal of
modern work, so admirably executed by Rogers that it is difficult to distinguish it from
the ancient, d he organ, rebuilt by Hill and Sons, is a very large and finely-toned one, and
is placed in a western gallery. (Plate XXII.) There are no less than four sword rests, one
a modern one of most elaborate design, and the pulpit retains its sounding board. The
present lofty altar-piece hardly can be the one described by Hatton, for he mentions the
Queen’s arms and supporters, and the east window, which is now blocked, has above it
a “ glory ” gilt, with rays emanating from a triangle. But if the altar-piece is not original, it is
an excellent imitation of one of Wren’s, and fits its position very well. In Malcolm’s « Lon-
dmnm Rcdivivum the description tallies with its present appearance, but a century had
elapsed between Hatton s and Malcolm’s accounts. The cost of rebuilding was £3,980 1 U 3d.

ST. OLAVE JEWRY,

WITH ST. MARTIN POMERY.

This church has but very recently been destroyed.
The east end, which was of stone, abutted on to the
west side of Old Jewry, called also in olden time St.
Olave Upwell. After the Fire the church of St.
Martin Pomery or Pomary was not rebuilt, and
the parish was annexed to this ; the one building
serving for the two parishes. It was an early founda¬
tion, existing in 1181, and probably long before that. St. Olave, a Norwegian by birth, was
the son of Herald Grinska, and was one of those dreaded Norsemen who ravaged our shores
and sailed up our rivers, spreading devastation far and wide. Newcourt says of him that
during the reign of Ethelred II., for the space of three years he remained here to assist
Ethelred against the Danes, and then returned to Norway, of which country he afterwards
became king. He had become a Christian, and as his subje&s had not embraced that faith, a
party was formed against him, who united with the Danes. Olaf or Olave lost both his life and
kingdom in the year 1028, and was soon after canonized. His memory was held in such
esteem here, that many churches were dedicated to him, three, if not four, in London alone.
St. Martin Pomery took that name from being situated in the “ pomcerium,” a space left
behind the walls to allow the free passage of troops in defending weak points of the wall.
In Roman times houses were not allowed to be built on this space, but in later London the
growth of the City absorbed it.

The church of St. Olave certainly could not be called a handsome one. The plan was
very eccentiic, being wider at the west end, and the north and south walls tapering to the
east, which gave it a coffin-like shape, still further increased by the canting of the angles at
the west end. It had a western tower, and a large portion of the internal area at the west was
partitioned off, and formed vestibules and a vestry. There was a west gallery, returned slightly
along the north and south walls; the ceiling was flat, with a deep cornice round, and the
side windows had enrichments of cherubim and festoons, over each. The pulpit and font
were good, but of no original merit ; the internal door-cases were richly carved. Hatton
describes three paintings which adorned the church in his time ; one of Elizabeth, representing
her as lying in effigy on a tomb and another of Charles I. in his royal robes, kneeling and
holding a crown of thorns; in the background is a ship, tempest- tossed. A third picture
at the west end represented Time, with his scythe and hourglass, apparently triumphing over

a sleeping cupid, and trampling on a skeleton, but none of the three have survived. John
Boydel theftlus alderman, was buried here, and there was a tablet to hts memory.
Externally only the east and west ends were of Portland stone. The tower was very p lam,
with four corner pinnacles rising from the parapet, above a bold proving cornice and taking
the church altogether it was not a very favourable specimen of Wren s arch, tenure. The
united parishes have now been annexed to St. Margaret Lothbury, and everyth, ng worth
preserving has been taken there.

The tower still stands, and has been utilized for some purely secular purpose, and at
present there is no intention of removing it. It is to be most earnestly hoped that in this case
funds have been reserved out of the general “ loot ’ to keep it in repair, and not to let it go to
ruin as in the case of St. Mary Somerset !

ST. BENET FINK.

This beautiful little church, which
stood on the site now occupied by
the Peabody statue at the back of the
Royal Exchange, was removed by an
A6t of Parliament for “ the improve¬
ment of the approaches to London
Bridge” about 1841, although it is
rather difficult to see how in any way it could possibly have interfered
with them. It is an instance of the apathy and negledt of real art on
the part of the City authorities, made doubly painful by the substitution
of an awful example of a bronze statue, comfortably seated in an easy
chair ; one of the worst of the many bad statues of public men which
dVr-grace our public thoroughfares.

St. Benet, as he was popularly called in London, where there were
several churches dedicated to him, was St. Benedift the Abbot the
founder of the Benedi Sines, and the second name, Fink, was from the
original founder or rebuilder of the church, Robert Fink or Finch the
eider, whose name is perpetuated in the adjacent Finch Lane. It was
an old foundation and the patronage was vested in the neighbouring
hospiml Of St. Anthony on the site of what is now the new addition to
the Stock Exchange. The foundations of the hospital were laid bare
when the add.tlon was made a few years since Th 1 r ,

- • *7*

TOWER.

the building were

received on each column. The spaces between the columns were arched, forming a series
of vaulted recesses round the building ; a singularly picturesque arrangement. Externally
the windows, which were of the Venetian type, with stone mullions, had been partially
blocked at some subsequent period, leaving only the upper parts open. The tower was a
very pleasing design and nicely proportioned, with oval belfry lights, over which the main
cornice was carried, and boldly carved swags of fruit and flowers in stone, decorated the
lower part. The lead-covered upper part and lantern harmonized well with the lower part.
Although one of the smallest of Wren’s towers, 87 feet being its total height, exclusive of
the vane, it is certainly one of the most pleasing.

One of the principal subscribers to the rebuilding after the Fire, was a Roman Catholic
gentleman named Holman, who gave ^1,000, and would have given the organ also, but this
offer was refused. In one of the south windows was a “ south declining west ” dial, finely
painted with the motto c‘ Sine Lumine Inane,” and in another window were the arms of
Holman. The font and cover, reredos, panelling, and carving, all seem to have been
exceptionally good, but there is no record of what became of them at die destruction. The
parish was annexed to St. Peter-le-Poer Broad Street.

ST. DIONIS BACKCHURCH.

This church is dedicated to St. Dionysius the Areopagite, who,
according to tradition, was baptized by the Apostle St. Paul and
laboured as a missionary bishop in Gaul, converting many. He
is better known under his French name of St. Denys, and was
beheaded at Montmartre, Paris. Manchester Cathedral is dedicated
to him in association with St. Mary and St. George. The term
“ Backchurch ” evidently alluded to its position, it being set a
little way “ back ” from Fenchurch Street, while the neighbouring
church of St. Gabriel stood more prominently forth in the road¬
way. St. Dionis has been destroyed within the last fifteen years.
In plan it was an irregular parallelogram, consisting of nave and north and south aisles, continued
to the east wall, but terminating at the west end in a tower and vestry respectively. The
aisles were separated by Ionic columns and pilasters, carrying an entablature from which sprang
the arched and groined plaster ceiling. In each of the groins so formed was a circular
clerestory window, and the ceilings of the aisles were flat, with round-headed windows in
each bay. There was a western gallery, containing a fine organ, supported on wrought-iron
square pilasters, with gilt caps, similar to those of St. James Garlick Hill. The pulpit with
its sounding board, and the reredos were all good specimens of seventeenth-eentury art,
and many of its mural monuments were very fine. Externally the tower, rather Italian
in character, rose well above the houses, and with the row of small shops in front was
picturesque. The late George Edmund Street, R.A., made a design for converting the whole

church and tower into a sort of Lombardic church, with traceried windows and horizontally striped
cnurcn ana tower iiilo a front and substituting an open cloister

walls of red brick and stone, clearing away the p^ ^ ^ church a very perfeft

court, which fortunately was not carried ou . h ribs and bosses of the fifteenth

crvpt was found at the east end of the north aisle, vaulted win.

century. The whole church seemed to have been ereded on the remains of the pre-reforma¬
tion strudure. Fenchurch Street in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries had a good many
wealthy residents, and their liberal benefadions and gifts, helped towards the rebuilding of their
parish church. We read that several persons lent ^2,000 towards the rebuild, ng, and that
the whole of the oak seating was also given. Sir Thomas Cullum gave the marble footpace
and Steps, Sir Arthur Ingram the altar and rails, Sir Henry Tulse the font steps and pavement,
Sir Robert Jeffreys the velvet carpet or cover for the altar, the cushions, and books, Thomas
Sturges the gallery, Phillip Jackson the reredos, his wife the altar linen, and a friend the
chalice, patten, and spoon, Peter Hoet another chalice and basin, Daniel Rawlmson a brass
branch of sixteen sockets, and there were many other gifts. Provision was made for prayers
twice a day. When the church was destroyed the then redor retired upon his full stipend,
and, having seceded to the Roman church still draws his stipend as redtor of St. Dionis !

At the west end of the church were preserved four of those large syringes or squirts for
the extinction of fire, veritable “parish squirts.” The church was commenced in 1674,
and finished in 1677, but the tower was not added until

ST. GEORGE BOTOLPH LANE,

WITH ST. BOTOLPH BILLINGSGATE.

Standing in close proximity to the spot where the flames first burst
forth on that fatal September night, this church was one of the first
to succumb to its ravages. It was soon rebuilt, and the neighbouring
parish of St. Botolph was annexed to it; the new church, which was
finished in 1674, being made to serve the two parishes. Small as to
size, and standing on a declivity from west to east, Wren made use of
t e opportunity to raise it on a plinth, or basement. The plan is
nearly a square, with a tower breaking into it at the north-west angle,
menially the area is divided into nave and aisles by four Composite
columns, carrying an entablature from which springs the arched roof of thl nave whfie the
ceilings over the aisles are flat. The arched celling is j ■ , >

bands of a running scroll ornament and each rng lded.lnto Aree compartments by flat
The centre and western divisions have each circular deram 4 ^ -T1" SUbdmded into Panek

while that of the eastern has no clerestory. The side wall 7 WS,’ f °'ned lnto the vault>

alls are pierced by windows, three on

each side, except the west wall, which has one only, at the west end of the south aisle. The
south-east window of this aisle is circular, a vestry abutting on to the church at this corner.
Exception perhaps might be made to the unusual width of the inter-columniation, but the
interior is light and graceful. Wren used this arrangement of a square plan with four columns

in three other churches — St. Anne Aldersgate, St. Martin Ludgate, and St. Mary-at-Hill _ but

in each case he varied the treatment, so that no two are alike. The reredos and the pulpit are
richly carved, and there is a very handsome sword rest of wrought iron, embellished with the
arms of William Beckford, twice Lord Mayor during a rather stormy period in George III.’s
reign, when the Court and the City were not on the best of terms. His first mayoralty was in
1762, and his second and more memorable one in 1770. A similar sword rest, bearing his arms,
was also erefted in St. Mary-at-Hill, but the one at St. George’s has this inscription : — “ Sacred
to the memory of that real patriot, the Right Honourable W. Beckford, twice Lord Mayor of
London, whose incessant spirited efforts to serve his country hastened his dissolution, on the
2 1st of June, 1770, in the time of his Mayoralty, and in the 62nd year of his age.” There
is also a plainer sword rest in the same church. Externally the walls are of stone, and the
windows, with the exception of the east one, which is larger and round-headed, have segmental
arched heads. The tower rises boldly from the ground, but is very plain, with square-headed
belfry lights, plain cornice, and solid parapet. At each corner of the parapet is an urn,
surmounted by flames. The east front is plain, but in good proportion ; the centre projects
slightly, and is finished at the top with a cornice and pediment, while the aisles on each side
have half pediments and a cornice, the cornice being continued round the sides. The organ
was not built until 1723. The paintings of Moses and Aaron which adorn the reredos, were
added subsequently to the time when Hatton wrote (1708).

St. Botolph the Abbot is a saint of whom very little is known, and Baring-Gould, in his
“ Lives of the Saints, has little to say of him. By some he is called Botolph the Briton, and
is claimed as a Cornishman, but the name is evidently Saxon. Whether he specially defended
travellers or not, it is curious that his churches are generally placed near the gates of the City;
for at Aldgate, Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, and Billingsgate there were churches dedicated to him.
The original church of St. Botolph, destroyed in the Fire, was a very ancient foundation,
dating from Saxon times. Stow describes it as a “ proper church, and hath had many fair
monuments within now defaced and gone.” The adjoining wharf, called “ Buttolphs,”
belonged to the Crown. St. George’s Church is one of those threatened with destruction at
no distant date, probably on the next voidance of the living, now held by Canon McColl.
It was stated at a public meeting held in the vestry of St. Edmund the King, that the church
had been closed for three years, and that a scheme was on foot for amalgamating it with
St. Margaret Pattens.

ST. MICHAEL WOOD STREET,

WITH ST. MARY STAINING.

Proceeding westward along Gresham Street, just at the angle
where Wood Street intersects it, one sees the east gable of
this church, almost buried by the lofty buildings close to it,
and even the spire, a lead-covered one, looks puny and
stunted. On the south side it is bounded by Huggin Lane,
a very narrow thoroughfare j so that the east end was the only
one where any architectural effeCt could possibly be displayed. This consists of three large
round-headed windows divided by Ionic pilasters, supporting a cornice and pediment, and in
the centre of the pediment is a circular window. Plain and commonplace as this exterior is,
the interior of this small church is still plainer, for it is merely a short parallelogram with a
coved ceiling, and whatever interest it may formerly have possessed recent alterations have
robbed it of, with the exception of the oak reredos. The seats are all new, with bench ends
of mediaeval design, and brass gas standards in the same incongruous style t£ decorate ” the
interior. The organ loft and panelling, together with the churchwardens’ seats, have all
disappeared, and the organ is now placed on the floor at the west end ; it has lost its old
case, and the pipes have been stencilled with a diaper pattern in the “ correCt ” Gothic style.
The old tower remains ; evidently the Great Fire only injured the upper part of it, and the
belfry, which was never rebuilt. A timber spire, covered with either lead or copper, was
stuck abruptly on the stunted portion left*;- it -originally retained the old four-light fifteenth
century window, but this has now been- replaced by an ordinary round-headed one. There
is a tradition that the head of James IV. King of Scotland, was at one time kept here.
It is said that after he was slain at Flodden Field, his body was embalmed, and brought to
the monastery at Sheen, but at the Dissolution it was wrapped in lead, and placed in a
umber-room, where Stow saw it, and that some workmen, out of pure wantonness removed the
head winch was taken away by Lancelot Young, Elizabeth’s master-glazier, and brought to
his house in Wood Street, and that he, weary of possessing the gruesome objedt, subsequently
gave it to the sexton of this church. A curious coincidence, and a rather remarkable one in
ts way, is conneaed with this. The monastery at Sheen was given to Henry Grey, Duke of

He Jv n k 7 TV11? thC r°yal was despoiled of Jhead; the

head of Henry, Duke of Suffolk, after being separated from his body by the headsman’s axe,
was long shown at Holy Trinity Minories, as a curious obiedt in ti,, 77 neat ismai i s axe,

King of Scotland, had been shown at St. Michael’s Wood trZ \ TT?7-' “J J‘T
the authority for these two traditional heads is very slender Th ^ "7 7 7

sword rest here, but the parish wanting monev for the r r • \ ^ KCeD^ a g°°d

Company of Haberdashers, and as a movement is on 777; t *7 “ C° ^ W°rshiPful
well that it should be in their keeping. St. Michael’s wa destr<V Ae church’ PerhaPs k Is as
jC2’554 tan ntf. The church of the adioiniiw n ■ h C°“Pleted ln i675, and the cost was

in the Great Fire, it was not rebuilt, and the parhh^18 ° ^ Stainin§ being destroyed

parish was annexed to St. Michael’s.

ST. MAGNUS LONDON BRIDGE,

WITH ST. MARGARET NEW FISH STREET AND ST. MICHAEL
CROOKED LANE.

This fine church, whose lofty and beautiful tower and
spire is such a conspicuous objeCt, stands close to
the present London Bridge ; but to the old bridge,
which was a little further eastward it was even closer,
the footway passing under the tower. This will
perhaps help one better to realize the advantages of
new London Bridge and its approaches, for there
was formerly a steep descent down New Fish Street,
and then a considerable rise again until the centre of
the old bridge was gained, whereas now, Thames Street is carried through one of the arches
of the new bridge, and one looks down upon this church. Much has been said of Wren’s
foresight in building the tower on such a plan that it could be utilized and thrown into
the public way j but, if Maitland’s view of the church can be relied on, the north and south
aisles were then carried further westward, and terminated in a straight line with the west wall
of the tower, which rather militates against this theory. The present building suffered
severely in a fire, which broke out at an oil-shop close to it, in 1760, burning off the roofs and
very much injuring the interior ; but it still retains many of its old fittings, and very soon after
the needful repairs were executed, this alteration at the west end was decided on, and
carried out.

The dedication to St. Magnus is curious, for he was a Norwegian, a son of Erlendr, Earl
of Orkney, and on account of family dissensions had retired to Orkney, where he was most
treacherously murdered by his cousin Hako, a.d. mo. Both the Magnus Helga Saga and the
Orkneyinga Saga, give a detailed account of his life and martyrdom. In the Roman Calendar
there are two other saints of this name — St. Magnus, Bishop of Avignon, and St. Magnus,
Bishop of Amagni ; but evidently the northern saint is commemorated here, as elsewhere
in this island. The building and foundation of this church could not therefore have been so
early as many others in London.

The church internally is very disappointing, and probably the injury done by the
fire before referred to, and the utter dearth of all architectural talent at the time of the
repairs, may be answerable for this ; but what strikes one most is the extraordinary width
and irregular spacing of the intercolumniation ; the second bay from the west looks as if it had

5°

, . ■ to account for an omission which Wren certainly was never

lost its columns, and i is ^ ^ eastward again is only half the width of the others. The
guilty of anywhere e s J horizontal entablature and oval clerestory

columns are Ionic, and look weak, they -- oyer the windows, but with very little

aisles are perfoaly Hat, Without

any ornament; all of which is probably due to the taste prevalent in 1760. The altar-piece is
very line, and so are the font and pulpit ; unfortunately the last has been shorn of its superb
sounding board, which now stands on end in the vestibule, terribly knocked about. The
font cover is not unlike that of St. Mary Abchurch. The organ and case, a magnificent
piece of work fills up the whole west wall over the gallery. The instrument itself was built
by the two Jordans, and was presented to the church by Sir Charles Duncombe, Lord Mayor,

who also gave the clock, which was originally decorated with the figures of Atlas and
Hercules, St. Magnus and St. Margaret (curious company), and two cupids to maintain
harmony, all richly carved and gilt with gold. There is some very good wrought-iron work
in the church, especially the altar-rails here shown, and a curious sword rest. The standards
in front of the organ gallery have the initials A. R. surmounted by a crown.

Over the door-case at the west end of the south
aisle, rather high up, is now placed the carved oak and
painted centre portion of the reredos, which is of
unusual shape and form, and was removed to show
more of the east window. The windows are all filled
with modern stained glass, heavy in colour and poor in
design, and the east window, which is unfortunately
very large, is also filled with a sort of kaleidoscopic
pattern. The galleries have been removed, except the
organ one, and the loss of these contributes greatly
to the poor and bare look of the interior ; but all these
internal imperfections are compensated for by the ex¬
ceedingly fine tower and spire, certainly one of Wren’s
most original and graceful ideas (Plate XXIII.), and,
like St. Paul’s, thoroughly identified with London.
In the plate the Tower Bridge is well seen in the
distance, and the enormous size and scale of it is
better realized when contrasted with a building like
St. Magnus. St. Margaret’s New Fish Street stood
very much on the site which the monument now
occupies, commemorating the Great Fire to which
St. Margaret and St. Magnus were the two first
churches to succumb. There is a beautiful door-case,
which originally formed one of the entrances at the
west end, but it has been removed now to the south¬
east end, and forms a small vestry.

St. Michael’s Crooked Lane was destroyed to
improve the approach to the new London Bridge.
The tower and spire were very good in outline, although
the church was but ordinary. Malcolm, in the “ Lon-
dinum Redivivum,” dismisses it in very few words :
“ The church of St. Michael is really so plain as to be indescribable ; the altar-piece, of the
Corinthian order, consists of four pillars and a divided pediment and the usual tables; there is
no organ, and but three tablets,” yet, like so many of these churches, it was inseparably
connected with the national history. It had been rebuilt by John Lovekin, who was four
times Lord Mayor, and a new chancel and chapel were added by Sir William Walworth,
who lies buried here.

And one more entry to connect this church with events which are familiar to our minds
like household words. Walter Warden gave towards the finding of one chaplain all his
tenement called “ The Boar’s Head in East Cheap.”

DOOR-CASE, FORMERLY ONE OF THE ENTRANCES AT THE WEST END, ALSO THE FONT.

ST. JAMES GARLICK HYTHE OR HILL,

TO WHICH IS NOW ANNEXED THE PARISH OF
ST. MICHAEL QUEENHYTHE.

The dedication of this church is to St. James the
Great, the Apostle of our Lord and first Bishop or
Patriarch of Jerusalem, beheaded by Herod Agrippa.
It was a very old foundation, and the first re¬
building of which we have any notice was in 1326.
After the Great Fire the foundation of the present
church was laid in 1676; it was consecrated in
1682, and completely finished as to its tower and
spire in 1683. Originally it was isolated on all sides, but encroachments have been allowed
which almost entirely block the south side. The interior is very fine and stately, and there are
one or two features peculiar to it, and not found elsewhere. The plan comprises a nave and
aisles, with a short chancel and western tower and spire, with a small vestry at the south-eastern
angle, and a western organ gallery. The nave is divided from the aisles by four detached
Ionic columns on each side, and wall pilasters. The central bay on each side is wider, and
opens into a short transept, which does not project beyond the line of the aisle, but is carried
up into the main roof. The columns support a deep cornice, over which is a clerestory.
The ceiling in the centre is flat, divided into five panels, with a deep cove groined over the
windows, and the groin carried as a barrel vault into the chancel and transepts. The ceiling
of the aisles is flat, with deep moulded plaster beams from the columns to the walls, dividing
the ceiling into panels. In the main ceiling, where the cove meets the flat part, there is a very
bold and highly enriched cornice, and the panels on the flat are also framed with a deep
enrichment ; the two end ones are filled with scroll foliage, and the centre one with a circular
flower. From the number and size of the windows the church was called « Wren’s lantern,”
but the blocking of the whole of the aisle windows on the south side, and the covering of the east
window with a huge painting of the Ascension, by Geddes, with the destruction of the north
and south transept windows, have entirety altered this. To make matters still worse, every
remammg window has been filled with dark and heavy stained glass, and wheel windows

in the tran f v’T' u ch“aa'r With the desiSn of the building> have been inserted

oWnTZ wlT ! r UICh dark even °“ the <%, while the scheme of

nouT is not! t f ^ngs -creases the gloomy effe* of the interior, which, oddly
enough, is not so not.ceable in the illustration (Plate XXV.) as in the reality. It retains its

S. JAMES.. GARLICK HITHE

INTERIOR VIEW.

Plate XXV.

ante

high oak wainscot round the walls, but the seats have been lowered. Most unusually for a
church of this period they were not of oak, but deal, painted and grained. The east end has

been fitted up for a choir with the oak fittings from St. Michael’s Queenhythe. Two doorways

from this church form the backs of the stalls and screen off the aisles behind. The pulpit
also comes from St. Michael’s, together with the quaint wrought-iron hat-rails and one of the
sword rests. The reredos has been curtailed to get in the large painting above, which was a gift

to the church in 1815 by the curate, afterwards redtor, Dr. Burnet. It is of no great merit,

being boldly, but coarsely,
painted. The spaces of the

reredos once occupied by the

decalogue, etc., are nowfilled in

with paintings, the central one | ^

being the Supper at Emmaus, jl

and the side ones angels and

scrolls, of more recent date j [

than the large upper painting, . v*

but, as works of art, of even less hat-rail.

merit. The old paving has been replaced by mediaeval tiles, and in the sandtuary the
old black and white marble paving is left in the centre, but it has a broad border of
mediaeval tiles, of a particularly aggressive pattern. Brass standards of the ordinary
Birmingham Gothic type, bristle all over the church ; the columns are painted to
represent yellow Sienna marble ; and the walls are of a sad green colour. The
church did not possess any monuments of particular interest or merit, and since
the amalgamation of the two parishes those of St. Michael are added to the
number.1 The wrought-iron columns supporting the organ gallery are very good,
and are similar to those formerly existing in St. Dionis Backchurch. The whole
space beneath this gallery is screened off from the church, and forms roomy
vestibules. In 1838 the windows were blocked in the south aisle, and two new
windows inserted at the west end. Godwin, in his “ Churches of London,”
says four windows were inserted, but in old views two only are shown as then
existing.

□ The chief feature of the exterior is the tower and lantern, which is of the

same type as St. Michael’s Paternoster, and St. Stephen’s Walbrook, but entirely
column under different from either in its arrangement of coupled columns at the angles (Plate

THE GALLERY. _ ° A 0 '

XXIV.). The parish is small, but contains perhaps a larger residential population
than many others in the City, and is well provided with services. The church is kept open
during the day.

1 Since this was written the church has been redecorated in soft ivory white, and the walls in a toned buff with a light red
frieze working in the cockle shell of St. James. The tiles in the sandtuary have been suppressed, the brass standards abolished,
and the whole of the heavy stained glass in the upper windows has been removed, plain glass substituted ; several other minor
improvements have also been effected.

ST. MILDRED POULTRY,

WITH ST. MARY COLECHURCH.

This diminutive church was long a familiar objedt in the Poultry,
opposite the Mansion House. Its site is now occupied partly by
the Union Bank of London, and the Equitable Life Assurance. The
dedication is to St. Mildred, a Saxon princess and abbess of Minster,
j£ent. Jr was an old foundation, and had been rebuilt in 145°)
previous to the Great Fire, but was then totally destroyed, and
rebuilt in 1676. The plan was a parallelogram, with the tower
breaking into the south-west corner. It had a flat roof, with a circle
inscribed, and coved at the sides, while the angle of the tower was carried by a single Ionic
column, and the space westward of this was occupied by a vestibule below, and an organ
gallery above. The reredos was of the ordinary type, and neither the pulpit or the font had
any special features to distinguish them from many others. The front towards the Poultry was
a little more ornate, but the windows had been blocked, possibly to prevent the noise of the
passing traffic disturbing the services, and presented a very blank appearance. The tower was
a very low one, with square-headed belfry lights, a bold cornice, and a rather high parapet,
with a small lead-covered lantern. There was a large and commodious vestry-room added on
the north side, which had the appearance of being built later than the main building. The
front towards St. Mildred’s Court was the best, but the court was so narrow that it could not
be properly seen. The living originally belonged to the canons of the Priory church of St.
Mary Overie, and in old documents is styled “ Ecclesia Mildredas super Walbrooke, vel in
Pulletria, una cum capell Beatse Marias de Conyhop eidem annexa.” This chapel of St.
Mary Coneyhope Lane, had been destroyed by Henry VIII. Its dimensions were 56 feet long,
42 feet wide, and 36 feet high. The cost was ^4,654 91. j\d.

St. Paul s Clerkenwell, was built out of the proceeds of the sale of the site and materials.

ST. STEPHEN COLEMAN STREET.

This church is dedicated to the glorious proto-martyr,
and is a very plain and unobtrusive building, possessing
but little interest now, for the demon of destruction
has swept over the interior, and has left it plain, bald,
and most uninteresting. Traditionally it was supposed
to have been a chapelry attached to St. Olave Jewry,
but it occurs on the list of livings drawn up by Ralph de Diceto as belonging to St. Paul’s in
1182. The interior is a plain oblong, with the sides far from parallel; the ceiling is flat
and has coved sides. The galleries have been removed and the church reseated with open
benches. With the exception of the west one, which was continued a short distance along
the north and south walls, the galleries were comparatively modern, and supported by iron
columns. The tower, which carries a short lead-covered lantern, is at the north-west corner,
and the church is lighted on the north and south sides by round-headed windows, now filled
with ornamental glazing. The east window, of similar form, but larger, contains a repre¬
sentation of the Deposition from the Cross, after Rubens. It is heavy and dark, the light being
transmitted through certain portions to give the effedt of a picture. The oak panelling at the
west end, screening the vestibule, is modern and poor. Externally the church has no architectural
merit, but in the stone gateway, leading into the churchyard, is a curious representation of the
Last Judgment; somewhat similar to the one at St. Giles-in-the-Fields. It was rebuilt in 1676.
Hatton’s description of the east end does not agree with the present arrangement, for he speaks
of a u circular pediment between two pine-apples, and under the pediment the figure of a cock
carved within a handsome compartment between two festoons, and two windows environed
with enrichments,” all of which have given way to the present bald arrangement. It is a
striking example of “ how not to do it” when altering Wren’s work.

ST. LAURENCE JEWRY,

WITH ST. MARY MAGDALEN MILK STREET.

A little to the south of the Guildhall, with the
east end abutting on to Guildhall Yard, and quite
clear of houses on all sides, this church possesses
advantages, as to both light and position, beyond
many others. It is dedicated to St. Laurence the
Deacon, whose martyrdom is symbolized by the
gridiron, which serves as a vane to the lead-covered
spire. There was only one other church in London
dedicated to this saint, St. Laurence Pountney,
which was not rebuilt after the Fire. St. Laurence
took the name of “Jewry” from being near to the Ghetto, or quarter where the Jews had
been compelled to reside, now called “ Old Jewry.” In an outburst of popular fury, which
occurred in the forty-seventh year of the reign of Henry III., seven hundred of these unfortu¬
nate people were massacred, and their goods and houses utterly ruined. Their synagogue
was afterwards assigned to the Friars of the Sack, “ Fratres de Sacca, or <£ de penitentia, who
derived their name not from the <c sack ” of the Jews’ houses, but from their being clothed in
sackcloth. They did not, however, remain long in possession, for in 1305 Robert Fitzwalter
obtained of the King (Edward) an assignment of their chapel, which adjoined his house, the
site of which is now partly occupied by Grocers’ Hall. The name Jewry, or Old Jewry, has
been retained ever since.

Internally this church is large and spacious, and has been much modernized, but it still
retains a good deal of its superb oak fittings. The plan consists of a nave and north aisle
separated by columns, and divided into five bays, stopping short of the east end by one bay;
a western tower, not central with the nave, but placed a little to the north, and fronted by a
spacious vestibule or porch. Both the vestibule and tower open into the nave by arches, placed
symmetrically, and filled in with the most beautiful doorways and screen-work (Plate XXVI.).
The pediments of the doorways are broken by a large standing figure of an angel, holding a
palm branch, and between these two doorways the organ stands on a raised loft, supported by
Corinthian columns. The organ case itself is most superbly carved, the panels having various
musical instruments in high relief, with a small choir organ in front of the main organ. The
whole composition of organ, loft, and side doors, is one of the richest specimens which the art
of the seventeenth century produced. Northward of the tower, and at the western end of the

north aisle, is the vestry (Plate XXVII.), most richly panelled in oak, and decorated with
festoons and wreaths in high relief, each panel having a carved moulding round it. The
cornice is also highly enriched with carving. The ceiling is in plaster, with a large quatrefoil
panel, surrounded by a framework of foliage and fruit, and the spandrels at the four corners of
the quatrefoil are enriched with scrolls and foliage, also in high relief. The panel in the
quatrefoil was painted by Sir James Thornhill, and represents the apotheosis of St. Laurence,
and over the chimney-piece there is a picture of his martyrdom. This charming room,
with its panellings and rich plaster- work and paintings, is a most
perfect specimen of the art of the period, equal to anything at
Hampton Court, or Windsor Castle, and there can be but little doubt
that the carving here is really from the hand of Grinling Gibbons, an
honour St. Laurence shares with St. Mary Abchurch, and, alas ! with
the recently destroyed church of St. Mary Magdalen, Old Fish Street,
which occurred through fire.

The north aisle is screened off from the church in the lower
part, and forms roomy vestibules and vestries ; the upper part has
glazed windows, and was formerly occupied by a gallery. There
is a clerestory on the north and south sides. At the east end of the
church there are two round-headed windows, having a central space
with a circular window between them. These are filled with modern
glass, as are most of the other windows. The seats have all been
lowered, and the east end arranged for a choir. The floors are now laid
with mosaic. The ceiling is coved at the sides, with projecting bands,
starting from scrolls, which divide the flat part into panels, in which
are wreaths and palm branches. The old oak reredos has gone, and
the panel between the two windows is now filled with a mosaic
representation of either the Transfiguration or the Ascension, but in
either case the number of the Apostles is wrong.

The front towards Guildhall Yard is rather more pretentious
than the south side, and has a colonnade of four Corinthian columns
supporting a well-proportioned entablature, which is carried on, only
to the angles of the building, and is supported by angle pilasters.
This colonnade and entablature is terminated by a pediment, pierced
with a circular window placed against an attic story, and finished with
a cornice and parapet, which is carried all round. Between the two windows of the east front,
and at each side, are round-headed niches, and above these and the windows are swag wreaths
of foliage. The sides of the church are very plain ; the south has five round-headed windows,
and circular ones at each end, over the doors, one of which forms the principal entrance from
Gresham Street, and the other is blocked. The tower is lofty, with corner pinnacles, and
boldly moulded cornice, and carries a lofty spire of timber, covered with lead ; it is square
below and odlagonal above. On each of the four square sides are belfry lights, surmounted
by pediments.

The foundation stone was laid on April 12th, 1671, and the cost of the rebuilding was

6 o

principally defrayed by the parishioners, aided by one or two libera benefaflors Since the
destruction of l Guildhall Chapel, on the other side of the yard, St. Laurence has become
the Corporation church, and it was in this church that the experiment was first toed of having
special services to attrad business men, an experiment which has proved very successful elsewhere,
showing that congregations can be got together, and that the reproach of empty churches ,s not
entirely due to the apathy of the laity.

The famous John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, lies buried in this church, and
has a monument on the north side, at the east end. A man of singular piety and of great
learning, he was formerly ledurer here. Stow has preserved a curious epitaph from the
ancient church, on Sir William Stone, alderman :

“ As the Earth, the Earth doth cover,
So under this ‘ stone ’ lies another,” etc.

And in the present church there exists another with the same sort of punning allusion to the
name. William Bird died Odober 2nd, 1698, aged four years.

“ One charming Bird to Paradise is flown,

Yet are we not of comfort quite bereft,

Since one of this fair brood is still our own.

And still to cheer our drooping soul is left,” ete.

Plate XXVIII.

NICHOLAS COLE ABBEY

ST. NICHOLAS COLE ABBEY,

WITH ST. NICHOLAS OLAVE.

The saint to whom this church is dedicated enjoys an
almost universal popularity, not only in Italy, but also in
France, England, and Germany, where he is venerated under
the name of “ Santa Claus,” but still more in the East and in
“ Holy Russia,” where sailors and fishermen invoked him of
old, and placed themselves under his special protedlion.
In this capacity he has been as popular as the holy Apostle
St. Peter himself. Very little is actually known of him, and much of the legendary lore which
has gathered round his name cannot possibly be accepted as authentic, for it is almost
grotesque. He was born at Patara, in Lycia, Asia Minor, and was elected Bishop of Myra, and
died a natural death, a.d. 343 ; so far there can be but very little doubt. The legends about
him commence with his infancy, for the first thing we hear of him is, that he refused his
natural sustenance every Friday or other fast day. Secondly, that his extraordinary power of
quelling storms at sea (as well as of exciting them) dates from the time of his ordination as
priest, when, during a voyage to Jerusalem, a great storm arose, and he at once controlled the
waves. On his return journey the captain broke faith with his passengers, and wanted to put
in at Alexandria, instead of going straight to Lycia. A most opportune storm at once arose,
and it is needless to add that St. Nicholas was disembarked at the haven he wished. Another
legend is about a certain man who had three daughters who were very beautiful, but very poor,
and as there seemed no chance of getting them off his hands legitimately, he had decided upon
most disgraceful means of doing so ; but St. Nicholas came to the rescue with three golden
balls or bags of gold, and so provided all three with dowries, and became the patron of pawn¬
brokers, who adopted this sign of the three golden balls. But the legend by which he is more
generally known, and the one most often depicted in connexion with St. Nicholas in sacred
and legendary art, is the raising of the three little children who had been barbarously murdered
by an inn-keeper and salted down in a pickle tub. St. Nicholas hearing of their disappearance
went off at once in search of them, and, finding the tub, called them forth, when all three of
the “ little pickles ” stepped out alive and well. His relics now repose at Bari, in Southern Italy,
beneath a costly silver altar (1319) in the crypt of the church of St. Nicholas, built by Robert
Guiscard in 1087. His body had been stolen from Myra by some merchants of Bari and taken
there in that year, when the beautiful church was erected in the Lombardic style to contain
them. It still exudes the famous u oil ” called Bari Manna, so much esteemed in Russia,

survivor,

what, in olden time was

,„i« ,, .. i, did « Two of *e V Londoo

d„, were f.„ dodioowd to hta So -«■ ^ ^ ^ ^

Aeon, and St. Nicholas “ m the Shambfts. Of these

It is described as being on the south side of Old fish s reet,

the fish market, before its removal to Billingsgate. This was the

reason for its dedication, and one can easily imagine its old aisles J

the sea, coming in, after disposing of their “harvest/ to return thanks for dangers past, and to
invoke St. Nicholas to protefl them, in the future. Stow says it was a very ancient : ct urch

that the steeple and south aisle were not so ancient as the rest, being new u 377,

and the remainder repaired by one Buckland, a fishmonger, and others of the same fraternity
The distinguishing name of Cole Abbey is generally supposed to be a corruption of Cold
Harbour, for in Thames Street, hard by, was a large mansion called by that name ; and m the
reign of Henry IV. this belonged to, and was inhabited by, Prince Hal, and was not very far
from his favourite haunt, the Boar’s Head in “ Chepe,” and his boon companions Falstaff,
Poins, and Pistol. Stow’s derivation from Cold Bay, like many others of his, cannot be accepted
as conclusive; they are often only rough-and-ready ways of arriving at a solution, and “ Cole
Abbey ” from “ Cold Bay ” as a place exposed to the weather is more fanciful than correct.

When the present oak panelling, being loose, was removed in order to plug it to the walls,
and make it tight again, the old oak plugs having decayed, the walls were found to be composed
of stone rubble, in which were fragments of Purbeck shafts, and stone bases of the thirteenth
century, with fragments of tracery and stone mullions of the fifteenth, and the lower part
of the walls were still in situ (see Introduction, page 3). The ancient fabric was doubtless in
a bad state in the first half of the seventeenth century, and large sums were expended in repairs
in 1626, 1628, and 1630, but the whirlwind of flame in 1666 made an end of it all, and the
parishioners had to set to work and see how best it could be rebuilt. It must be remembered
that one reason why so many of these City churches were not rebuilt immediately after the Fire
was, that the ground was encumbered with piles of rubbish, and that old boundaries had to be
adjusted, and streets, courts, and alleys accurately defined, and the wonder is, that all this
should have been done, with absolutely little or no litigation. Another cause of the delay often
arose when two churches had formerly stood very near to each other, and the vexed question
had to be decided which of the two should be rebuilt ; there were so many interests to be
consulted, both ecclesiastical and civil.

In 1673 steps were taken to re-ered the church of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, but it was
not finally completed and consecrated until 1677. Not until six years after that was all idea
of rebuilding St. Nicholas Olave abandoned, and the Ad for uniting the two parishes and
making Cole Abbey serve for the two, obtained. The plan of the church is very simple, being
little more than a long room, and the dimensions are small, the length about 63 feet, width
43 feet, and height 36 feet, containing about 97,524 cubic feet. There is a tower at the
north-west angle, built within the church, and the intervening space between that and the south
wall is occupied by a vestibule and vestry. This arrangement Wren has utilized very cleverly
by makmg three arches (Plate XXVIII.) open into this space, the lower portion being partitioned
oft with handsome door-cases, enriched with fruits and flowers, and with a panelled gallery front

above, the centre arch being occupied by the organ, but this was not so originally, for as recently
as 1807 there was not any organ at all. The church is divided by Corinthian pilasters into
five bays on the north and south sides; the pilasters stand on lofty bases panelled in oak, as
are all the walls, and the same bold cornice breaks round them. The pilasters are carried up
to the ceiling and support a very well-proportioned frieze and cornice, and the caps are well
modelled. The east and west walls are similar in treatment except that the east wall has
windows where the west has arches. The flat plaster ceiling follows the same arrangement as

BRASS CHANDELIER, SWORD REST.

to bays, having five panels in length to three in width ; these panels are divided by flat plaster
beams with enrichments, and the interseflions of these beams are marked by pendants, which
are not original, having been added in 1884, to take off from the extreme flatness of the
ceiling; in each corner panel and in the centre also are circular flowers. The north side
of the church has a range of five semicircular-headed windows, deeply splayed, for the
walls are of a good thickness. The principal light is derived from this side, as the windows
on the south have been blocked, with the exception of one, smaller than the others, over the
south door. In the side bays at the east end the windows correspond with those on the north
side, but the central one is curtailed by the carved oak altar-piece, which is a very good one,

and has sense excellent carving. The curved pediment at the top is very widely taken and
the royal arms, which were placed in the centre, have now been removed to sill < the
first window on the north side, over the seat supposed to belong to the College of Heralds.
The pediment is also crowned with two vases. The centre of the teredos formerly had the
Decalogue in two tables, with a cherub's head between them; these are now placed on the
splays of the windows to the north and south, and the space occupied by a square panel m
Venetian mosaic of the Agnus Dei, in the midst of the seven candlesticks, standing on the
mount from which flow the four rivers of Paradise. This subjeS is in a circular panel,
while in the spaces between it and the square, are the four evangelistic symbols, and the side
panels of the reredos, once occupied by the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, now have paintings
on a gold ground of Abel’s Sacrifice and Melchisedec’s pure offering. The east window and
the two side ones are of stained glass. The centre one has a seated figure of our Lord in

SILVER-GILT CRUETS.

glory, with the crown of thorns and the scarlet robe, displaying the five wounds. The side
windows have the figures of the patron saints of the united parishes, under rich architeftural
canopies, looking upwards to the central figure of our Lord. The old carved oak altar is now
the credence, and a larger altar, panelled and richly vested, occupies its place. The pulpit,
originally placed against the north wall, and afterwards brought into the centre, in front of the
altar, is now placed on the north side, and has lost its sounding board. The east end has
been seated for a choir and the seats are all lowered.

1 here is a very fine brass branch for twenty-four candles, suspended by a chain from the
cen re of the roof, and the sword rest, which had been moved, has been restored to its original
posit?; it is simple in form and has a quaint appearance. The old lion and unicorn, each

Thmche h u maAed ** commencement of the chancel in Wren’s

churches, have now disappeared, but were in position in .Bm ti r ■ r , , ,

the stem and steps are of black and it h,= ? . 85 The f°nt 18 °f willte marble but

and Dullev • it stnnrU h i V . 1 a Very §°°d carved oak cover suspended by a weight
pulley , it stands beneath the proving organ gallery. This portioir ofthe gallery, with its

two supporting oak columns, is not original, but is a most admirable addition of 1873, when the
organ was considerably enlarged. The altar plate in this church is very good, although two of
the chalices are almost too large for pra&ical use. Two silver-gilt cruets are remarkably
good in design and execution, and they date, as the remainder of the plate does, from the re¬
building of the church in 1676. There is one smaller chalice, silver-gilt, which is rather older
and of a better shape. One large silver-gilt salver has on the back an inscription setting
forth the names of the donors, and ending “ Ann Bromsgrove, Widd. also
gave in her mite.” Externally the formation of Queen Victoria Street has
brought the south side of this church much more prominently into view.

Before this street was made, there was a small churchyard on the south
side, and to the south of that again stood the old Redory House. The
narrow court at the east end of the church, now only a few yards in
length, was a long narrow lane, called Labour in Vain Hill, which led
down into Thames Street. The new wide Queen Vidoria Street passes
over the site of the old church of St. Nicholas “ Olave,” or as it was some¬
times called St. Nicholas ££ Willows.” When the Metropolitan Railway was
formed, it passed so close to St. Nicholas Cole Abbey that it considerably
injured the foundations, and the sum of .£1,681 ioj. was paid in
compensation; the Railway Company took the opportunity of making a
siding close under the south wall, and although it was expressly stated that
no engines would be allowed to stand there, this regulation has been utterly
disregarded, and the consequence is that the whole of the south wall has
been completely blackened by the soot, and the stonework injured by the
sulphuretted hydrogen fumes which roll up from this opening, and the
church has been nicknamed £c Coal Hole Abbey.” These alterations to
streets, etc., in its immediate vicinity, together with the destru&ion of St. -*—^1 ■■ 1

Mary Somerset (removed under the Union of Benefices A6t), took place
between 1871 and 1873. The compensation received from the Railway
Company, with a further sum of .£1,028, from the proceeds of sale, etc., of
St. Mary’s, were expended on the church of St. Nicholas, and the following
works were executed. First the formation of a new approach, with gates
and a flight of steps on the south side, making that the principal entrance;
next the entire remodelling of the interior, cutting down the seats and re¬
arranging them, moving the pulpit, laying the passages with coloured tiles,
reglazing all the windows with tinted glass in a large and coarse
pattern, of which specimens are still left in the vestry and gallery windows,
then recolouring the walls in stone-coloured paint, warming and lighting the church, and
putting in brass gas standards (in the medieval style), removing the royal arms and consigning
them to oblivion, and several other works undertaken perhaps with more zeal than discretion.
The seats were made unusually wide from back to front, as the re&or was non-resident, and
the possibility of a large congregation was not contemplated. The appointment of the present
retflor changed the whole of this. A Rectory House was built in the parish, and further
alterations were made in the church to fit it for the overwhelming congregations which

, U i„ nrecinfls while many are unable to obtain admission,
now, Sunday after Sunday, throng P 0ft-repeated question of “ What is the use

This state of affairs, which is a complete answer to the oit rep q when the

of the City churches?” led to further “I^^^^locred in shades of soft red,
roof panels and beams, walls, arc es an ^ ^ the arms Qf the Archbishopric, the

the windows on the north si e reg azc windows are now

Bishopric, the see of Hereford, the Chapter, nd of ^Oty- ^ patron ^ s, Ma,.yj
filled with stained glass, as before mention a little c]oser together,

St Peter St Nicholas, St. Benedift, and our Lord. 1 he seats werF 6 ’

Ln ro’om for one hundred additional worshippers; the teredos was glide .jn
fll arms., if not exadly restored to their original positron, were placed close o it. The
chancel wa fitted with choir seats, a more convenient access was made to the gallery and a
choir vestry formed beneath. Since then many handsome gifts have been made, including a
jewelled altar cross and candlesticks, and two large, handsome old brass gospel lights, which stand
on the footpace. Quite recently the one window on the south side has been filled with stained

glass, the workmanship and gift of Mr. Aldam Heaton. .

The north side of the church, which was originally the only one seen, remains intaft,
but the upper part of the tower and spire has had to be rebuilt in consequence of the decay
of the lead, through which the whole of the timber had become rotten. It has been entirely
rebuilt and releaded, precisely as before. The total cost of this church was originally £s,Soo,
and Strype says that it was the first “ completed ” after the Fire. In many of the accounts of
other churches one comes across the entry in parish books, that the church be wainscoted in oak,
“ like unto St. Nicholas Cole Abbey,” and one could wish that the similarity could in these
days be extended further to the crowded congregations, beautiful music, and devout services
which distinguish St. Nicholas. Since the removal of St. Mary Somerset, the united parish is
now called St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, with St. Nicholas Olave, with St. Mary Somerset, St. Mary
Mounthaw with St. Benet Paul’s Wharf, and St. Peter Paul’s Wharf, and it enjoys the unique
distinction of having twelve churchwardens.

ST. MARY ALDERMANBURY.

We generally look upon the present Guildhall as a structure
pretty venerable as to antiquity, but the name Alderman-
bury takes us back to a period in the history of the
Corporation of London, anterior to the eredtion of the
present building between the years 1411 and 1431.
Alder manbury means the Bury or Court Hall of the
Aldermen, and as the locality in question was known by
that name so far back as 1189, and Ralph de Diceto mentions this church in 1181, tc Ecclesia
S. Marite Aldermannesbire . . . . est Canonicorum . . . . et habet ccemeterium,” the church
probably existed long before this. There are many ecclesiastical references to it during the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. In 1331 the Canons appropriated it, with the consent
of the Bishop, to the Elsing Spital, still reserving the patronage. But at the dissolution by
Henry VIII. of all religious houses (hospitals for the poor and sick and needy included,) the
advowson was granted in trust to certain parishioners, who eledted the minister. Of the old
building little is known, except that it had been almost rebuilt in 1437 by Sir William Eastfield,
Lord Mayor. A very few years before the Great Fire, i.e ., in 1633, it had again been nearly
rebuilt at the expense of the parishioners. It was one of the City churches which possessed a
cloister round the churchyard, a vestry being over a part of it in 1665.

In 1677 Wren completed the present building. It consists of a nave and aisles and
western tower, the latter partly engaged, the aisles being slightly prolonged to the west. The
nave is divided into five bays, and has four complete columns, and two half columns, of the
Composite order on each side ; these support a bold entablature, from which springs the arched
plaster ceiling. Over the central bays are two large round-headed clerestory lights, which are
groined into the vaulting ; the remainder of the ceiling is perfectly plain, with the exception of
a large circular flower at the groin, where the two clerestory lights occur. Plain bands of
ornament divide the ceiling into large panels. The ceiling over the aisles is flat and divided
into panels, corresponding with the columns by trabiations, with a circular flower in the centre
of each panel. The interior is lighted by round-headed windows on the north and south sides,
one in each bay, and a larger one at the east end. The east windows of the aisles were oval,
and there is a circular window over the door on the south side. At the west end there is a
gallery, which Malcolm in his account describes as “ wretched,” where “ certain vocal and
instrumental performers sit, whose notes are substitutes for the sublime organ so necessary in
our service.” There is a possibility in these days of having too much of a good thing, and one
would welcome a good instrumental band as an agreeable substitute for the everlasting organ.

Of late years it seems as if churches were built solely for organs and not organs for chuxche.
The oalZ altar-piece here was not so fine as in many other churches. There was a pflurc of
the Last Supper, painted by old Franks, and given by Mr. Whitchurch, clerk of the Brewers
Company, in the centre, in which some of the heads are finely painted. The pulpit was
well carved, but the font is very plain compared to others. Although the date given m the
“Parentalia” for this church is 1677, the parish books inform us that it was in the year
1670, that the parish first undertook the rebuilding by private subscriptions and loans. One
entry is as follows: « 1673, April the 10th. At the Committee to consider about facilitating
the finishing of the church. Having considered the kindness of Dr. Christopher Wren and
Mr. Robert Hooke expediting the building of the church and that they may be encouraged
to assist in perfecting that work, it is now ordered that the parish, by the Churchwardens, do
present Dr. C. Wren with 20 guineas, and Mr. Robert Hooke with 10.

In the walling of this church a good deal of the stone rubble of the ruins of St. Mary
Magdalen Milk Street was used up.

There were two remarkable people connected with this church, contemporaries for a time,
although one died almost twenty-five years before the other. They were Edmund Calamy, and
George, Lord Jefferys, Baron Wem. Wide as the Poles asunder in almost every respeCt,
yet in one particular there was a similarity : both were men of decided opinions, who could
brook no contradiction or opposition of their own preconceived ideas, Calamy in Religion,
Jefferys in Law. I11 1639 Calamy was elected by the parishioners, and from that time until
he was forced to resign in 1662, his whole life was one continual battle against everybody
who did not agree with him. He was buried here in 1666. In 1 708, when Hatton’s “ New
View” was published, there was still hanging on the walls of this church the armorial ensigns,
banners, sword, gauntlets and spurs, of the Right Hon. George Jefferys, Baron Wem, Lord
High Chancellor of England, and those of his son who succeeded him in the title, and upon
whose death in ryoa the title became extinfl. Between the years 1679 and 1684, in the
registers of baptism, there are entries of five members of the Jefferys family, Ann, Thomas,
Mary, and Elizabeth, children of Sir George Jefferys, Knight, Recorder of London, and
Christiana, daughter of the Right Hon. Lord Chief Justice Jefferys. This extraordinary man,
on whose memory contemporary and subsequent historians have heaped so much abuse,
attempted to escape after the abdication of James II., but being recognized at Wapping, was
set upon and ill-treated by the mob. He was committed to the Tower, and is said by some to
have died shortly after from the effects of this violence, but his death resulted from a most
painful disease from which he had suffered for many years, and which was doubtless the cause
of many of those ebullitions of temper and impatience which he exhibited on the Bench. He
was first buried in the Tower, and possession of his body being obtained by his family it was
brought here for re interment, four years and a half after his decease. Another name linked

Edtmd M? °f 7 “7 CO"“aed Wlth St Mar? Aldermanbury, for here was buried

o foe IT T’ “7* afterWardS the famOUS Earl °f Manchester, and General
ot the rarkament party. He died n ^ ^ c • • ,

Restoration. Externally the church is built of Portl T haVlnS Kved l° see the

a parapet with pinnacles, and a leaden Irret h fo r T u ^ ^

inserted. The east end is curious; foe mrmfolti ! t 7 § m°dem ^

ns to the parapets of the aisle roofs were

inverted curves on each side of the central gable, which is finished by a pediment. The oval
windows, before referred to, have given place to wheel windows, filled with tracery, and the
same abominable treatment has been accorded to the aisle windows; after the fashion of
St. Michael Cornhill the curved parapets have given place to exceedingly commonplace open
ones. The east window was similarly treated, but better counsels have prevailed, and the
tracery has been replaced by stained glass, which, alas ! is poor both in design and colour. On
each side of this window, externally, are supporting scrolls of an unusually large size. The
churchyard has been planted and seated with benches, and is open to the public during certain
hours ; the church unfortunately is kept closed. Internally the church has suffered terribly
from innovators. All the old seats have gone and have been replaced by open benches, with
ends similar to those at St. Swithin’s. The reredos has entirely disappeared, and there is now
a new one, of poor design, either in stone or painted stucco. The west gallery has gone,
and the organ, in an ordinary modern case, is placed at the east end of the north aisle. The
doors at this end are blocked, the windows have been reglazed, and the pavement relaid with
mediteval tiles. The usual Gothic brass gas standards replace the old branches ; a very fine
one of the latter, for a double tier of candles, having entirely disappeared. The old pulpit has
gone and a heavy lumbering stone stru&ure now replaces it, while a big pew, like a loose box,
with modern fittings (including a table), disfigures the last bay of the south aisle. To sum
up briefly, a clean sweep has been made of every vestige of the old fittings, and every scrap
of interest has been eliminated from the interior, which now looks cold and bare and cheerless
and is an awful example of what harm the modern innovator can work in these fine old
seventeenth-century interiors. The painting of the Last Supper now hangs in the vestry,
and there is no trace of the coffin plate of Judge Jefferys, which was formerly shown. A fine
old City mansion, with a grand oak staircase and inlaid parquetry landings, existed, within
recolleiftion , on the east side of Aldermanbury, opposite to the east end of this church, which
was traditionally said to be the residence of the Jefferys family and of the future Lord High
Chancellor when only Common Serjeant.

ST. MICHAEL QUEENHYTHE,

WITH ST. MARTIN VINTRY AND HOLY TRINITY TRINITY LANE.

One of the most pidturesque and pleasing views of vanishing

g _ y London was that of Queenhythe, with its row of old houses

Iq! on the eastern side of the dock, and the stone steps
. J I — | descending to the Thames, with an old tree at the head of

them, while the view was bounded on the north by this
church, with its white weather-washed walls and leaden spire
surmounted by the quaint vane, representing a ship. The church has been destroyed, and

7°

the old tree which had survived many a storm, has succumbed to the mevttable. The
Whe or harbour, took its name from having formerly been part of the dower of the
Teens of England, and here all ships laden with corn and fish were ordered to be un¬
loaded. Its proximity to the old fishmarket in Old Fish Street and Kmghtnder Street explains
why the fish-boats discharged their cargoes here, for Billingsgate, as a fishmarket, was
a much later foundation. Queenhythe, or Ripa Regina:, was originally called
Edred’s hythe. The church was first mentioned by Ralph de Diceto, in
1181, but had then existed for a long time. After the Great Fire it was
rebuilt in 1677. It was only recently destroyed, and the parish annexed to
St. James Garlickhythe ; the sale of the site and materials partly paying for
the new church of St. Michael’s Camden Town. The plan of the building
was a plain parallelogram, with a tower and spire at the north-west corner,
preceded by a porch and vestibule, lower than the main building. Internally
it had a flat ceiling, coved at the sides and groined over a series of circular
windows placed over the main ones, which were round-headed. Externally
these windows formed rather a pleasing composition, having a festooned
carved stone wreath between. There was a west gallery with an organ.
Some of the best of the woodwork, such as the internal door-cases, the
pulpit, etc., were removed to St. James Garlickhythe, together with the
sword-rest and the Lion and Unicorn which marked the entrance of the
chancel, a common feature in many of Wren’s churches. The iron-work
in this church was curious ; many of the side pews along the north and south
walls had wrought-iron hat-rails (see St. James Garlickhythe), and there was
a curious bracket with pulley and chain attached to the font cover, also
illustrated in the account of the above church. In pulling down the church
the walls which supported the arcade of the old fabric, before the Fire,
were distinctly visible. The reredos had paintings on canvas of Moses and
Aaron, supported by angels, and in 1721 Sir James Thornhill was thanked
by the vestry for having ct so liberally repaired and improved ” these paintings.
They have been removed, and an ugly modern altar-piece was substituted in 1823 from the
designs of George Smith, architect. The carving was all very good of the school of
Grinling Gibbons. The font was stated to have been dug out of the ruins of Holy Trinity
church, but it was very similar to some of W’ren’s.

There was a curious tradition — utterly devoid of truth — that the body of the ship in full
sail which formed the vane was capable of holding a standard bushel of grain. This vane
now surmounts the modern reCtory of St. James, which has been built partly on the site of the
church of St. Michael. The dimensions of the church were 71 feet in length, 40 feet in

1 1, ’ 311 T'1' ini!eight- rcmovh'g the human remains from beneath the floor of the

church many of the coffins were found almost uninjured.

ST. MICHAEL BASSISHAW.

Michael the Archangel was chosen as the patron saint of
no less than seven churches within the walls, equalling
in number those dedicated to All Hallows. Bassishaw, the
title which distinguishes the one under consideration, is
derived from Basings haugh, which is simply a corruption,
while the same name in a purer form survives in the
adjacent street called Basinghall. The foundation of this
church can be traced back to 1140, when the patronage belonged to the Canons of St.
Bartholomew Smithfield, but it seems to have passed afterwards to the family of the Basings, for
in 1 246 Henry III. confirmed the advowson to Adam de Basing, whose
father, Solomon de Basing, had been Lord Mayor in 1214. It passed
afterwards to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s. The plan consists of a
nave, with north and south aisles and a western tower, with vestries on each
side. The aisles are divided from the nave by three detached Corinthian
columns and two responds on each side. The ceiling over the nave is
arched, and springs from the entablature, carried by the columns ; there
are clerestory windows on each side groined into it. It is adorned with
square panels following the curve, and the keystones over the windows
are cherubs heads. The reredos was of the usual type, and above it was
painted a curtain, whose folds were supported by cherubim, disclosing a
glory, appearing in clouds. The best view is from the east, which
shows a semicircular gable with inverted curves over the aisles. The east
window is semicircular, the lower part blocked, and there are circular
windows to the aisles on each side. The tower is poor and cemented ; the
upper part sustains a lead-covered lantern, o&agonal in shape and in two
diminishing stages, with a curved pyramidal spire. It is finished with a
cornice and parapet, with corner pinnacles of pine-apple shape. The church
has now been closed for some time, in order to permit the removal of the
dead interred beneath the pavement, and it was said that in doing this the
foundations were found to be very unsafe and much undermined, and
that the Corinthian columns supporting the interior were specimens of
what could only be called the jerry-building of the period, as they were
made up of several sorts of materials and plastered over, so that the closing order obtained by
the sanitary authorities is likely to be continued indefinitely, and made an excuse for removing
the church altogether. Before these discoveries no signs of settlement were visible !

The length of the church is 70 feet, the breadth 50 feet, and the height 42 feet. It was
commenced in 1676, but not completed until 1679- In the old church were several
interments of note Sir James Yarford, Lord Mayor 1519; Sir Wolstan Dixie, Lord Mayor
1 585 5 Sir Leonard Holyday, Lord Mayor 1605; and two of the Greshams, both Lord
Mayors, 1537 and 1574.

ST. SWITHIN LONDON STONE,
OR CANNON STREET,

WITH ST. MARY BOTHAW.

Very few churches in the City possess a more commanding position than
this, for it stands in one of the principal and most crowded thoroughfares,
and immediately opposite the City terminus of one of the main lines of
railway to the south coast and to the continent.

It is dedicated to St. Swithin, one of the Saxon line of Bishops of
Winchester, who is commemorated on July 15th, and his name for ever
linked with that popular legend, that if it rains on this day it will rain
for forty days inclusive ; therefore a rainy St. Swithin’s day is rather dreaded,
especially by the agricultural class. St. Swithun, which is the correft
spelling, was born at the very commencement of the ninth century, and was ordained priest
a.d. 830 ; becoming confessor to Egbert, he succeeded Helmestan as Bishop of Winchester, and
in that capacity took the young Alfred with him to Rome in 853. He was laid to rest in the
churchyard a.d. 862, and was afterwards translated into the cathedral in 971. When the
cathedral was rebuilt by Walkelyn, in 1079, he was re-translated, and his bones still rest
under a broad stone east of the choir, in the presbytery. The remainder of his history must
be regarded as purely legendary.

The church was of ancient foundation, although we find no notice of it before 1331-
Sir John Hind, Lord Mayor, rebuilt it between the years 1391 to 1404. After the Great Fire,
the adjoining parish of St. Mary Bothaw was united to it, the church of the last named not

being rebuilt. The name Bothaw, or “ Boat haugh,” was derived irorn a haugh or yard for

the building of boats at the bottom of Dowgate, near the river.

St. Swithin takes its second name from the famous London Stone, of which the remains are
now enshrined in a niche, having a grille in front of it, on the south side of the church. It is not
necessary here to go into the history of this curious relic, the general consensus of opinion being
hat it was the milharmm of die Romans, from which they reckoned their stadia or miles; but

since lTh f f u ' * W?aaSum in which has been held from generation to generation,
since long before the day when Jack Cade struck it, and declared himself master of London.

5 “r “ Abihu"h' b- ,b" ,he

from the almost perfeflly square angle 0f the b ** 1

4 g the body of the church, but here the resemblance

ends. This square area, instead of being worked into a circular dome carried on pendentives,
has an octagonal dome, starting from a regular frieze and cornice, supported by half columns at
each point of the odtagon, except one, where the column is complete and clear of the side walls.
(Plate XXIX.) The sides of the dome are enriched with panel-work and festoons, and are
pierced with, four lucarne oval lights at each of the four angles. The festoons have fluttering ends
of ribbons, unusually long and very much twisted. The vestibule is divided with a gallery above,
and vestry and staircase, etc., below. Although retaining its oak wainscoting round the walls,
the church has been re-seated with open benches having carved ends of nondescript form, and has
the usual so-called mediaeval brass twisted gas standards. The west gallery has
been removed, and the arch leading into it from the tower is blocked. Over
the north gallery was another, ere&ed in 1812 for the school children, who,
like little cherubs, sat up aloft. The organ, which was in the north gallery,
was built by voluntary contributions in 1809. It now occupies the north¬
east angle of the building, and the case has been made to fit the new position.

New stalls have been eredled for a choir on each side of the altar, and the
latter is inclosed by a wooden balustrade, leaving very little room within it.

The oak reredos has been shorn of a good deal of its carved enrichments;
the flat wooden figures of Moses and Aaron which flanked it have disappeared,
and the east window is now filled with stone tracery and quasi-medizeval
glass. The remainder of the windows have suffered from similar treatment,
and the effetft is deplorable. The fine old pulpit now occupies the south-east
angle, corresponding with the organ on the opposite side. It has lost its
superb sounding board or canopy, which was one of the largest and finest in any
of the City churches. Its present position is cramped and confined, and the
very beautiful panels are almost invisible. The old paving has been replaced
with mosaic, a great improvement on the usual tile pavements of the
“ restorers.” There is nothing remarkable about the font. The monument
to Michael Godfrey, merchant, is a very fine one ; he was the first deputy-
governor of the Bank of England, and having to attend the king (William of
Orange) in Flanders, was slain by a cannon ball before Namur, 1695.

The concluding lines of his epitaph are quaint and original.

“ The God of Battel found in Foreign Parts
The Son of Hermes formed for peaceful Arts,
And thought it lawful Prize to take his Blood
Because so near a Warrior King he stood.”

There was a tradition that Sir Henry Fitz-Alwin, the first Mayor who was distinguished
by the title of u Lord” was also buried here, but other authorities state that he was buried in
the Priory of the Holy Trinity Aldgate, and re-interred at St. James, Duke’s Place.

The church is small, being only 61 feet wide in its broadest part, and 42 feet long from
east to west. The height is 40 feet, and that of the tower and spire 150 feet.

Both the roof of the cupola and the spire are covered with lead. The clock dial, which
projects from the south side of the church, was formerly surmounted by a gilt figure of St.
Swithin between two vases, also gilt.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW EXCHANGE,

SOMETIMES CALLED ST. BARTHOLOMEW THE LITTLE.

Anyone who might be anxious to see this church would look
for it in vain near its old locality. It has been removed, and
rebuilt in Moor Lane, Finsbury, and in this rather drastic
proceeding has lost much of its interest, while it still preserves
certain ugly architectural features which, whether in Moor Lane
or on its ancient site, rendered it one of the least pleasing of
Wren’s productions.

The plan consists of a nave and side aisles separated by
columns of the Tuscan order ; the arches springing from the
capitals without the intervention of an entablature. They are
four in number on each side, and above them is a clerestory with a corresponding number
of lights. There is a shallow chancel, the aisles stopping short of the east end by one
bay, but the clerestory is continuous. The north and south sides of the chancel also
have side windows. The tower is placed externally to this plan, and adjoins the church at
the south side of the aisle, at the west end. It is exceedingly ugly, looking for all the world
like an unfinished building, but there is every reason to believe that nothing more was
intended, and that it is complete as it stands. The ceiling, which was flat and divided into
panels, had a deep cornice, and a gallery for the organ occupied the west bay. Much of the
walling and a small oCtagonal staircase turret attached to the wall of the north aisle were
ancient. The old oak altar-piece was lofty, and had four columns of the Corinthian order
supporting an entablature ; between the two centre columns was the Decalogue, and above
that a spacious glory, in the centre of which was the u Lamb as it were slain.” The outer
divisions inclosed the usual figures of Moses and Aaron, and the top was finished by a divided
pediment, with the royal arms in the centre. The whole of the reredos had the ordinary
enrichments of doves, palm branches, lamps, cartouches, shields and festoons. The altar was of
porphyry, with a step or gradine for the candlesticks. The pulpit, which was finely carved,
urmounted by a canopy, and the church was wainscoted round, eight feet high. These
ttings, together with the pews, were all of oak. The interior looked comfortable before the
Tl A r^m°vec^ kut t^le present building has a somewhat bare and desolate appearance.

• i • , emo ition and rebuilding of this church on the new site was later than 1839,

Win, and Britton published their - Churches of London ; ” it was probably
It formerly stood on the east side of Bartholomew Lane, and a

ere&ed early in the “ forties.”

portion of that site i

now occupied by Broad Street and Threadneedle Street. It was 78 feet

in length, 60 feet in breadth, and 41 feet high.

SLADE

LIBRARY

Plate XXX.

ST. BRIDE FLEET STREET.

Although there is no good view of
this church obtainable near to it,
except from a narrow avenue on the
south side of Fleet Street, its lofty
tower and spire dominates this part of
London’s chief artery, and is a con¬
spicuous landmark, both from the north
and south. The avenue mentioned
above, and which leads from Fleet Street to the tower of this church, is itself quite modern.
In 1824 a terrible fire occurred which consumed some houses in Fleet Street and opened up
the view, and many public-spirited individuals, thinking that such an opportunity should not
be lost, decided to subscribe themselves, and appeal to the public to do so also ; a large sum
was collected, the sites bought, and the avenue formed in 1825. One can only wish that the
same public appreciation of archite&ure evinced on that occasion might be revived in these
days to put a final stop to the wholesale destruction of other examples of Wren’s genius
and taste, which disgraces the closing years of this nineteenth century.

There is absolutely no record as to when this church was first founded; that it is
exceedingly ancient its dedication to St. Bride or Bridget is a proof, for she was a very early
saint. She was of Irish birth, the daughter of a slave girl, but afterwards adopted and brought
up by her father, and treated with the same kindness as his own legitimate children.
Renouncing the world, however, she built a cell at Kildare where she retired, with three other
like-minded maidens, in a.d. 469. Attra&ed by her sandrity, many others joined, and this
little community drew so many people to the place that a town soon sprung up, and was made
the seat of a bishop. Accordingly she is looked upon as one of the founders of religious
orders. She died in the year 525, and was first buried at Kildare, but was afterwards taken to
Down Patrick, where she was interred in a triple vault, already containing the bodies of St.
Patrick and St. Columba, her friends and companions. When the monument over their remains
was destroyed by Leonard, Lord Grey, in Henry the Eighth’s reign, her head was saved and taken
to Neustadt in Austria, and was afterwards given by the Emperor Rudolf II. to the church of
the Jesuits at Lisbon, where it still reposes. There is another St. Brigitta, who was a Swedish
princess, canonized in 1391, but the church of St. Bride had been in existence long before that
date. After the cathedral church of St. Paul, and the parish church of St. Stephen Walbrook,
St. Bride’s Fleet Street must certainly rank next in order for its beauty and internal proportion.
The plan is very simple ; a nave of five bays, north and south aisles, a shallow chancel, and a
western tower flanked on each side by vestibules and porches. It is by no means a small

church, being r r r feet long, 57 feet wide, and 4r feet high. There is a tradition that the spire
as left by Wren was a34 feet high, but that in consequence of a severe injury to rt by hghtnmg,
in 1,64 the upper part was rebuilt some ten feet less. Maitland gives a view of the sp.re
before this accident, and it is difficult to reconcile this statement with its present appearance,
for the only things missing are some vases on the top of the last oflagonal stage Internally, the
plaster ceiling is groined, the form of the arch, from north to south, being slightly elliptical,
while the compartments over the oval clerestory windows are semicircular. Boldly moulded
arches with square panels in the soffites, and circular flowers in the centre of each soffite, span
the church from side to side, and these spring from wall corbels of a very vigorous and
beautiful design. The main arches have also similar soffites
springing from an entablature which is deeper from north to
south than from east to west. (Plate XXXI.) These entablatures
are carried by lofty coupled columns of the Doric order on
tall o diagonal panelled bases. This arrangement is a very
novel one, and gives a substantial look to the whole fabric,
which would not have been the case had the columns been
placed singly. There is one blemish, and that is that the
heavily panelled gallery front rather spoils the effedt by cutting
into these columns, but Wren is so rarely guilty of this fault,
so common in his successors, that he may be readily pardoned
this one lapse. The entablature is carried round the shallow
chancel recess where it stops against the large east window ; the
columns are changed here for pilasters, and the main entabla¬
ture carries another pilaster with a small cornice above it.
This cornice ranges with that of the corbels of the roof, and from it there are trusses carrying
a deeper cornice, surmounted by a pediment following the line, and concentric with the arched
ceiling, framing in the east window, which is in three lights of the Venetian type. The glass
is modern, the centre portion being the descent from the cross, while the side lights have
attendant saints. The roof over the recess is very richly panelled in seven deep panels, with
enrichments in each, and framed in a running guilloche ornament. Until recently the glass in
this window was a heavy transparency (executed by a Mr. Muss in 1825) in which the light
permeates only through portions of the glass, in order to gain the effedt of an oil painting, the
medium being quite lost sight of. The old window was supposed to be a copy of Rubens’

painting in Antwerp Cathedral, and the subjedt was the same as the present, which certainly is
not after Rubens.

The oak reredos had been shorn of much of its ornamentation long before the late
alterations, and from old accounts the oak-work was always painted, since Hatton describes it as
being in his time, painted “ flake stone miner >■ ti ,

the letters T 1ST n r n -v “ ^ he centre panel now contains a cross between

most nf rh ’ w • A ^ei 0Ver C^e a's^es’ which are proportionately narrower than
Z ve st hm • rheS (with the eXCePti™ Peter Cornhill), is groined, and has
Ze oZn bveSRPrltglT m COTbdS °n thC WaU dde> ^ entablature of the main arcade.

figures, and FLe bLTng aZmpZeZ The Z Z “ C"e> Z

P 5 ■ The seats have been lowered, and the chancel properly

stalled for a choir. The altar rail is not a very rich specimen of wrought iron work, and the
same design is made to do duty again in the front of the choristers’ desks. The pulpit, which is now
placed on the north side, is well carved, but of no other particular merit, and it has no sounding
board. The font, which tradition says came from the old church, bears this inscription,
“Deo et ecclesias ex dono Henrici Hethersall, anno 1615,” which supports the tradition;
the bason is of white marble, with the arms of Hethersall, and the stem is of black marble,
but the design is very much like Wren’s usual fonts. The old pavement has been replaced
by tiles. The three fine brass branches mentioned by Hatton are no longer here, but the
present brass fittings and standards for gas are in very good taste, being in marked contrast
to the usual style of gas standards elsewhere.

The gallery fronts are very curious, the centre portion having the appearance of being
reversed. The whole church has been decorated in colour, very judiciously applied, and the
effed is quiet and reposeful. It is a little richer in tone at the east end, and the gilding,
which is not overdone, is applied with great judgment. There is a very plain sword rest;
the oak wainscoting has not been interfered with, and taking it as a whole, the most
rabid anti-restorer could find very little fault with the manner in which this church has been
treated. In Hatton’s time the east window had some stained or painted glass, which he
describes as “ Nebulous,” and “ above the clouds appears, from within a large crimson velvet
festoon-painted curtain, a celestial choir, or a representation of the church triumphant in the
vision and presence of a glory in the shape of a dove, all finely painted.” In his time also the
large east window had a neat scarlet silk curtain edged with gold fringe, and he speaks of
the “ pourtraidlures ” of Moses with the two tables in his hands, and Aaron in his priest’s habit.
These have long since disappeared.

Externally the church is built of Portland stone. A good view of it is difficult to get, as
it is surrounded by houses. The upper part of the spire (Plate XXX.) is curious, perhaps
more curious than stridfly beautiful, as the diminishing odtagon stages give it a pagoda-like effiedt,
but the lower part of the tower is very fine. It has been struck by lightning three times, the
last being but recently. The services were, daily prayers at 1 1 a.m. and 8 p.m. The living,
now in the gift of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, was formerly in that of the abbot
and convent. The rebuilding, which cost ^11,430, was finished in 1680. There are
an unusual number of monumental tablets which cover the walls internally, some very good,
but many mere blisters on the walls. One quaint inscription is worth quoting from Stow.
“ Here lyeth James Kinnon, a gentleman of Lentillo Monmouthshire, a Citizen Cannoneer and
Soldier, he died aged 67 years overheating his blood in preparing 40 Chambers at the
entertainment to the Prince in the Artillery Garden. To which Society he gave 40 chambers
and 5 marks in money he had one wife and one son, obiit 19 Dec. 1615. The Prince was
Henry Prince of Wales, eldest son of James.

ST. CLEMENT DANES

TO THE GLORY OF GOD
And for the Solemn Worship of His Holy
Name, This old Church being greatly decayed

WAS TAKEN DOWN IN THE YEAR 1680 AND REBUILT
AND FINISHED IN THE YEAR 1682 BY THE PIOUS
ASSISTANCE OF THE ReVD Dr GREGORY HaSKARD
Rector and the bountiful contributions of

THE INHABITANTS OF THIS PARISH AND SOME OTHER

noble Benefactors.

Sir Christopher Wren, his Majesties Surveyor freely and generously bestowing his great
care and skill towards the contriving and building of it.

Which good Work was all along greatly promoted and encouraged, by the Zeal and
Diligence of the Vestry.

Hugh Owen, William Jarman, Thomas Cox, William Thompson and John Radford being

Churchwardens.

So the Workmen wrought and the work was perfected by them, and they set the House
of God in his state, and strengthened it. — 2 Chronicles 24. 13.

SOLI DEO GLORIA.

This was erected in the tear 1684, Roger Franklin and James Deely, being Church-

WARDENS.

Such are the words of an inscription on a marble tablet within this church, a worthy
commemoranon of the prety and zeal of former parishioners of St. Clement Danes, who have
ntrish whi 'TgU,shed> and are Pre-eminently so to this day, for a love of their church and
elemvainffl T 7 T ^ benefka°rs> in zealous and painstaking

of administerin'1 1’ f T mlnIStrations and in arduous and too often thankless task
ut h !“v! b and;Wtable b^sts-trusts which have never been negledled,

hirers Tt rel“ T l ^ ^ -cording to the intentions of former

Commissioners misnamed Ch'aritWsincfth^T’ Whether-Under the administration of those

charity), and who are compS.^L*^^ “““ “ * “d a hind™Ce “ f

benefit of their poorer brethren P? f ■ tamentar5r bequests which men devise for the

legitimate use, to ends never co’ntemplatfd'of ^ funds fr°m thf

poorer brethren will benefit as they did • 1, by th°Se wb° Plousl7 left them— the

the friends and neighbours who knew thenTand'th 375 '“h ‘rUStS ^ administered ^

tnem and their wants and privations.

SLADE

LIBRARY.

The dedication to St. Clement is not a very common one. He was the third Bishop of

A Oil AAAA/lirW¥ Of- T in.." L _ 1 1 1 1 1

Alfred the Great after the conquest of London compelled the Danes to settle in this spot,
outside the City boundaries. There seems no good ground for doubting that the church
thus obtained this distinguishing appellation. Another derivation, however, attributes
it to Harold, a Danish king, being buried here, but which of the Harolds it does not say,
and no doubt this is purely legendary. The tower of the medieval church still exists, but
recased and altered by Wren. Subsequently it was heightened, and the spire built by Gibbs.
(Plate XXXII.) On the south side there was originally a very beautiful semi-circular portico,
resembling the west portico of the adjoining church of St. Mary-le-Strand, but this was
removed when the Strand improvements were carried out by Alderman Pickett at the com¬
mencement of the century. The plan is peculiar, the eastern termination of the nave being
semi-circular, with a semi-circular apse projecting. The ceiling is arched, and profusely
decorated with panels and enrichments (Plate XXXIII.), and the spandrels of the vaulting,
springing from the rather slight columns which support it, contain very beautiful panels of
unusually rich design. (Plates XXXIII. and XXXIV.) The aisles are groined in plaster,
and the way in which this lower ceiling sweeps round and opens into the chancel ceiling is
exceedingly clever. :.•.]» ..

This church is airy and spacious, and is a beautiful specimen ;; ©f; -Wren’s work. The
galleries are well treated, and the beautiful oak fittings give an air of solidity and comfort to
the interior. The organ, which has very recently been enlarged, was originally built by Bernard
Smith. (Plate XXXIV.) The pulpit is very beautifully carved. It is worthy of note that
there were formerly three daily services in this church — at ten in the morning, three in the
afternoon, and eight in the evening. Dr. Samuel Johnson was an habitual worshipper here,
and his seat is still pointed out. The south gallery fronts were decorated with the arms of
the Dukes of Norfolk and Earls of Arundel and Salisbury, all of whom, including the Earls
of Essex, were parishioners. The parish was once very densely populated, but wholesale
clearances for the New Law Courts, Court of Bankruptcy, etc., have eliminated large traCts
of ancient and most insalubrious courts and alleys.

Gibbs’ spire is not particularly pleasing as an architectural composition, the successive
stages giving it rather a pagoda-like look, but it is very quaint, and contrasts well with the
towers and spires of the New Law Courts. A very good view of the church is obtained from
the top of the flight of steps on the north, leading from Carey Street to the Strand, and
another, still more picturesque, from Holywell Street. It seems almost incredible that schemes
should have been devised to remove, not only St. Clement, but St. Mary-le-Strand also, to
open out the view of the Law Courts (which were never designed to be seen as a whole),
thereby destroying two of the finest works in architecture of a past age which London can boast,
and they form one of the most pleasing vistas in any city of the world. To see these two
spires outlined against either the rising or the setting sun is a revelation, and anyone who could

advocate such an aft of vandalism as their destrudion would involve, must be utterly dead to

The real obstrufiion, however, is that middle row of houses between the Strand and Holywell

Street, which, if we did but possess a County Council alive to real improvements, and not
given over to problematical theories and endless talk, might have been carried out long ago.

Malcolm, in his work, “ Londinum Redivivum,” vol. iii., page 395, speaks of the
architefture of St. Clement’s as “ a deranged collection of handsome and ridiculous parts, and
further ascribes the credit of the design (in dired contradidion to the tablet hanging in the
church) to one Edward Pierce.

Changes have taken place in the interior. Seats, of a wretchedly poor and meagre design,
have been put up in the choir. The old altar, which is of porphyry on solid supports, has
been raised, rather burying the two old gradines or shelves which still exist behind it, and the
statues of Moses and Aaron have disappeared, as have also the seven candlesticks which once
surmounted the entablature, and the handsome brass branches or chandeliers. The stained
glass in the three east windows is comparatively modern and very bad. The font cover is
handsome. The font is of white marble, of the vase pattern and unusually large. The
churchwardens’ seats have raised desks and stalls, and in the fronts there is some old wrought
iron work. It is singular that the first person interred in this church after its rebuilding was
one Nicholas Byer, a Dane.

In 1725 there was a great commotion in the parish about a new altar-pidture, painted by
Kent, the artist, in which it was said he had made the faces of his figures portraits of the
exiled royal family, and the pi&ure was removed by order of the Bishop of London. If this
is the same pi&ure which hangs in the Vestry Hall, Clare Market, it is certainly a very bad
specimen of art, atrociously drawn, and one can forgive the opposition. It represents a
heavenly choir, and was satirized by Hogarth.

ALTAR-RAIL, ST. JOHN’S WESTMINSTER.

ST. ANNE AND ST. AGNES ALDERSGATE,

WITH ST. JOHN ZACHARY.

John Stow’s derivation of Aldersgate, “ so called not of Aldrich or
of Elders, that is to say ancient men, nor of Eldern trees [alders]
growing there more abundantly than in other places, as some have

fabled, but of the very antiquity of the gate itself, signifying the

c older gate,” is doubtless correct, but it is a curious fad that
this church was distinguished in olden times by the addition of the
name “ Willows.” St. Anne in the Willows seemed to point to a
rather damp situation in which both willows and alders would have flourished, but Stow goes
on to say that there were no willows in his time, “ nor any void place where they could have
grown except the churchyard, wherein only do grow some tall ash trees.” This leafy character
never seems to have deserted the locality, for the quiet peaceful churchyard through which one
passes to the south door, is still green with foliage in summer, and this, together with the old
red tiles on the roof, and the low tower and lead lantern, gives an antique appearance to the

church. It is a very small building, an irregular square in plan, the east wall not being at

right angles. The internal area is divided by four beautifully proportioned Corinthian columns,

on lofty bases, placed in a square parallel to the sides, and although this also is irregular, the

difference is not perceptible, so admirable is the treatment. The plaster ceiling (Plate XXXV.)
may be best described as an intersecting segmental vault, not quite a semicircle, and this
intersection, springing from a deep frieze and cornice carried by the columns, forms a groined
vault over the centre. The four compartments of the ceiling, which thus form a cross, are
divided into large panels with deeply moulded borders, enriched with foliage. Crossing the
church, from column to column, are deep coffered bands, hardly deep enough to be called
arches, and a moulded rib is taken diagonally from each column, thus forming a regular
groin. The ceiling springs from the cornice, which is highly enriched with projecting

modillions. Over the four square angles the ceilings are flat, with circular wreaths of foliage,

and each arm of the Greek cross, except the west, where the tower is placed, has a large
round-headed window, which is flanked by smaller ones of similar form on each side. The
church has been re-seated and re-arranged, and the organ has been removed from the west gallery
and placed in the north-east angle. There is now a low chancel screen formed out of the old
oak pewing, in which some very good pierced and carved panels are placed. Within this, and
raised two steps above the nave, are the seats of the choir, and the altar is still further raised on
another step. The organ is screened off with a modern screen, closed below by panelling, and

the upper part is filled with turned balusters, surmounted by a frieze of open carved panels.
The whole of the woodwork is distinguished by a quiet treatment thoroughly in keeping with
the architecture, the only defeCt being that the bench ends look rather too mediaeval. The
east window is filled with modern stained glass depicting the Ascension, with a broad border
round. The oak reredos beneath has undergone some alteration of late years, the royal arms
having been removed from the centre and their place filled by a vase of the “ soup tureen ”
pattern, with wreaths connecting it with the two scroll half-pediments on each side. Between
the two panels for the Decalogue is a very puffy-cheeked cherub with four wings. The side
panels, which are lower and were for the Creed and Lord’s prayer, have some beautiful wreath
work over them. The altar-rail is modern with wrought-iron standards. The fine old pulpit
with its enrichments of cherubim, flowers, and leaves, disappeared some time before the late
alterations, and a modern plain oak one with an ugly base and staircase was substituted for
it. The font is not remarkable, and there is only a very plain sword rest, little more than an
upright standard, surmounted by a crown. The church was considerably altered about 1837,
and it was then that many of its beautiful fittings disappeared. It is lighted by the usual
nineteenth-century mediaeval type of brass gas standards.

The old church, which was first burnt down in 1548, and was then repaired, was beautified
in 1629, but was again totally destroyed in 1666. The exterior, beyond its quaint look of
antiquity, is not remarkable, but many of Wren’s roughest outside shells have very beautiful
kernels, and this interior is such an one. The cost was ^2,448 os. 1 or/. , and it was finished
in 1680. Stow deplores the destruction of the monuments it contained, in the fire of 1548.
There was one quaint and beautiful epitaph which deserves quoting for its originality :

Qu an tris di c vul stra
os guis ti ro um nere vit
H san Chris mi t mu la

The last syllable of each word in the upper line answers also for the corresponding word
in the lower line.

St. John Zachary was not rebuilt after the Fire, and the parish was annexed to this. It
was not far from this church of St. Anne, and the churchyard still exists. The churches
about here must have been very close to one another, for, in addition to the one just described,
there were also St. Mary Stayning, St. Olave Silver Street, St. Leonard Foster, St. Vedast Foster,
and St. John Zachary, all of them beneath the shadow of the great collegiate church of St.
Martin le-Grand. In St. John s was buried Alderman John Sutton, goldsmith, who was slain
m that black and dismal battle by night, which took place on old London Bridge, between
J Cade with his followers, and the citizens of London, The name Zachary does not appear
to have been used here in connexion with Zecharias the father of St. John the Baptist, as the

1 "as edicated to St. John the Evangelist, and its name was derived from a rebuilder of
the church, named Zachary.

ST. PETER CORNHILL.

Among the various traditions of the establish¬
ment of Christianity in these islands there is
one connected with this church of St. Peter.
It is often difficult to trace where tradition
ends and history begins, but the tradition is
that there was a certain Lucius, King of
Britain, who had been converted to Chris¬
tianity, and had founded this, the first Christian
church in London, somewhere about a.d.
179, and had constituted it the metropolitan church, and the seat of an archbishop or primate.
History is not very clear about Lucius, but with regard to Christianity it is positive enough,
and even before his time we have it upon the authority of Tacitus, the Roman historian, that
London was no inconsiderable city; a fail thus placed beyond the region of tradition.
History further lifts the veil a little more than a century later, when we find three British
bishops attending that great council of the early church held at Arles a.d. 314, Restitutus, the
Primate or Archbishop of London, being one of them. This was long before the advent of
Austin the Monk and his mission to the Pagan Saxons, or the establishment of a cathedral
on the present site. The Roman city of Londinium, although greatly extended in subsequent
periods, both northwards and westwards, was in its earliest time confined to a rectangular area,
starting from the Thames at the arx or citadel, now the Tower, proceeding northward to
Cornhill, just including this church, and then running westward to Walbrook, and returning
southwards to the Thames again at Dowgate, near the site of the present Cannon Street
Station. These were its earliest boundaries, and within this area interments were prohibited,
and none have been found, but beyond its limits they have been discovered in several
places. Another facS, pointing to a very early foundation, was the existence of a round tower,
separate and distinct from the old church, which stood at the south-west corner of St. Peter’s
Alley, and was taken down, by order of the vestry, October 21st, 1667. Further, there
was a school here in days when schools were invariably connected with churches of some
importance; and in Henry the Sixth’s reign (1447) this was one of the four ordered by
Parliament to be maintained. All these are points deserving of consideration, and although
the inscription on the present tablet in the vestry may not be altogether reliable, yet it is
to a certain extent corroborated by collateral evidence, and is a copy of one quoted by Weever
as existing in the church in his time, and which was known to have been there in the reign of
Edward IV.

The history of the old church was like many others ; we read of constant repairs and

patchings up, until the Great Fire swept oyer it and left nothing but blackened walls and
heaps of rubbish. It must have been a fine church, a little longer than the present one, for
the chancel projefled into Gracechurch Street. There is an entry in the vestry minutes,

CHANCEL SCREEN,

March 2nd, 1674, that the redtor and churchwardens had received the ^150 due from the
City for tc melioration ” money (a better word than <£ betterment ”) for the ground taken away
at the east end and laid into cc Gracious” Street. Seven altars were known to have existed in
the old church.

DETAILS OF SCREEN.

There are many entries in these minutes immediately after the Fire, which throw
considerable light on the modus operand i of setting to work on the rebuilding of the church ;
probably they occurred in other cases, but are more carefully set forth in this one. In 1667
it was ordered that the foundations and site should be cleared of the rubbish, and that a

surveyor might be found to survey the same, and give a model for rebuilding, with an estimate,
n 1668 the houses adjoining the church were being rapidly rebuilt, and ‘‘Mr. Jermyn is to
00k to all chimn.es and flues built against the walls, and only to allow them into the
buttence or peere, and that Mr. Jermyn have £a. for drawing several drafts and ‘ platts ’ for
rebuilding, and that the old rag-stone be sold and the proceeds to go towards buying bricks,
etc. Then follow some allowances made to neighbouring owners “ for the annoyance caused
by the rebuilding, showing that a certain amount of rebuilding was being done, and so on to
1669, when Mr. John Oliver is appointed surveyor as Mr. Jermyn had deceased. In 1670 the
churchwardens are to consult with workmen about securing the east and north walls lately
rebuilt, with copings. And in the same year, on the 20th of September, we find Wren’s name
first mentioned about an encroachment on the churchyard. In 1672 a vestry is held in the
chapel of old Leadenhall Market, which had escaped the flames, and it is ordered that
Dr. Wren have five guineas for his pains in getting a “ tabernacle for the parish,” and in 1673
another £10 is voted to him, so that the scheme for patching up the old church had fallen
through, and they had made up their minds to rebuild entirely. In 1675 (April 8th), Mr.
Beveridge, the redtor, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, and the churchwardens, do treat and
discourse with Dr. Wren and his surveyor, as to receiving his proposals about the new church.

The church was then commenced, and was so far finished in 1680, that they “contract
for the wood fittings and for a screen to divide the chancel from the body of the church, and for
a pulpit, with its canopy and stairs and rail, and that the Royal Arms set up over the screen be
carved both sides. The church as rebuilt is divided into a nave and north and south aisles,
with a north porch and a tower at the west end, not central to the nave, but placed partly
between it and the south aisle, an anomalous position, accounted for by its occupying the
site of the old tower, to the north of which is a spacious vestry. The aisles are rather narrow,
and there is a large west gallery containing the organ, the space beneath which forms a
vestibule. There are five bays to the nave on each side, but no constructional chancel ; the
chancel screen dividing the ritual chancel from the nave screens off one bay and a half at the
east end. These bays have semicircular arches, which spring from pilasters standing on high
panelled bases, from which rise Corinthian pilasters carrying an entablature and cornice ; the
former is not continuous, but the cornice runs round the whole church, and is enriched with a
bold egg and tongue moulding. On the north and south sides this cornice supports an attic
stage, divided into compartments by low pilasters, standing over the pier below ; each pilaster
is panelled, and has a rich cornice, not so deep, however, as the main cornice. From this attic
stage springs the roof, which is slightly elliptical, and is divided into compartments by bands
of slight projection, corresponding to the bays below, with a sunk double guilloche in the
centre of each, and further divided into three by similar longitudinal bands. Of the com¬
partments thus formed the central have circular panels, while those on each side have square.
The aisles have transverse arches from the central piers to the. wall, where they finish on
corbels and a barrel vault, concentric with the main arches, between each bay. The design
of the east end is curious, and not particularly beautiful (Plate XXXVI.) ; it has an arcade
of five windows, right across, and over the central window is another, flanked by two
circular lights. The main pilasters which occur between the piers are continued here, and
between the windows, but the entablature which is broken at the sides is complete, and

has some very pretty wreath work over each window. In 1872 the east windows were filled
with stained glass of poor design at an expense of £goo. The seats have been lowered,
but the doors are still retained, and within the beautifirl screen the chancel has been seated
stall-wise. The pulpit retains its canopy, and occupies its original position, but is not so rich
in design and ornamentation as many others, a remark which also applies to the oak teredos,
which was grained “ maple,” at the time when the whole church was re-paved and concreted,
and lighted by gas, with the usual brass standards. The whole of these works were carried out in
1872 at a cost of £1,222. The very fine organ, which was originally built in 1681 by Bernard
Smith, has since been remodelled by Messrs. Hill at a cost of £ 1,000 , yet Smith received only
£2 10 1 It is worthy of note in passing that the great composer Mendelssohn has played upon the
instrument. The font is good, and there is a tradition that the carved oak cover was saved from
the old church. In 1880 the old lead of the roof was replaced by zinc at a cost of £591.

Of late years wiser counsels have prevailed, and the alterations and repairs have been
in much better taste than heretofore. The brickwork of the tower has been repaired and the
spire covered with copper, and in 1889 the zinc on the roof was taken off and replaced
by 20 oz. copper. As at that time it was found that the roof timbers were defective,
and that the internal arcades were slightly out of the perpendicular, the arched roof was
strengthened by iron ties, which, although they may not be an improvement, were an absolute
necessity, as the walls were spreading. The maple graining at the east end was cleared
off, the oak work was waxed, and the side panels of the reredos were filled with cloisonne
enamel panels of the four evangelistic symbols, while the body of the church was decorated
in colour of a quiet tone. In the vestry of the church is now preserved a most beautiful
manuscript of St. Jerome s Vulgate, which has survived the various chances and changes
that have taken place in the material fabric. It was written for this church, as a note at
the end tells us, “ Iste liber pertinet perpetue Cantarie duorum Capellanorum celebrantium
ad altare Sanfle Trinitatis in Ecclesia Sandi Petri super Cornhill.” Private subscriptions
contributed largely to the rebuilding of the church, and the remainder was paid from the coal
dues; the total cost being £5,647 8r. 2d. The length is 80 feet, the width 47 feet, and the
height 40 feet. Prayers were said daily at ri and 4, and the Sacrament was administered
every Sunday. With the exception of the east front, in Gracechurch Street, and the
upper part of the tower and spire, the church cannot be well seen. The spire has a quaint
vane in the form of a key. The east front has a series of five round-headed windows between
Ionic pilasters, raised on a high stylobate ; these carry an entablature, and above is an
attic mas ing t e gable, with a central window taken up very high into the pediment, and

anked by two circu ar lights. There is a story of rather an amusing squabble between the
reftor of this church and those of St. Nicholas Cole Abbey, and St. Magnus, as to their
proper place in the grand procession on Corpus Christi day, when all the parishes and
the various guilds, confraternities, etc., in their best copes, and with banners and crosses,
decided f ; , P “ °f honour (to walk last) was claimed by all three, but it was

anT that th IS1 °f ^ ^ C°mhi11’ that ** P>-e belonged to him of old,

comenfron wa th W T° the *e thL disputants, the

‘Cho w^eTead t r h al°n f ^ tUt “ n0t 80 *e part of the parishioners,

who were ready to light the torch of discord.”

ST. ANTHOLIN BUDGE ROW,

WITH ST. JOHN BAPTIST WALBROOK.

The destruftion of these City churches
must always be a matter of keen
regret to any one who appreciates
architecture ; but archite&ure is not
the only thing which suffers. These
buildings, occupying the sites of the
ancient churches, were the centres of
parochial life ; the hopes, the sorrows,
and joys of generation after generation had gathered around them, and
invested them with something far beyond the ordinary antiquarian
interest. True as this may be of all, it is perhaps more particularly so
in the case of St. Antholin, for in losing this the City of London lost one
of its chief ornaments. Its beautiful tower and spire was the one
existing object which could possibly have relieved the utter banality and
commonplace appearance of Queen Victoria Street, but it has gone,
with all its associations and memories of olden times, and there is litde
left in the new [street to interest any one.

The dedication was to St. Anthony, one of those hermits of the early
ages of Christianity, who accepting too literally the command of with¬
drawal from the world, chose to shut the door upon their fellow creatures,
retired themselves to deserted and solitary places, and spent their lives in
austerities of the most dreadful description in order to win Heaven’s
gate. With the exception of St. Anthony’s Hospital in Broad Street,
there was no other dedication to this saint in London. It was one of
Wren’s most curious churches, and singularly beautiful. In plan it was
an odagon, lengthened so as to form an oval, and it had a dome of this
shape carried on eight Composite columns, supporting a deep architrave
and cornice, the dome being pierced by four circular windows. The
external wall did not follow the internal oCtagon, but at the east end was
prolonged out to a square, while the north-west and south-west sides were
canted. The tower and spire was placed at the west end, and there was
a vestry and vestibule filling up the north-west angle. The cupola over
the central part was adorned with fretwork and festoons, and the ceilings

of the aisles were flat, with panels formed by moulded plaster beams extending from each
column to the angles. The gallery was at the west end, beautifully enriched with carving, as
were also the reredos and pulpit. The altar itself was a marble slab, supported by a carved frame,
and on the north side, near the east end, stood the font, which had a wrought iron railing
round it; there was also a fine brass chandelier. The east window was circular and filled with
seventeenth century glass. The seats were all of oak, and the church was handsomely
wainscoted all round. The spire, of which an illustration is here given, was very pleasingly
proportioned, and after the destrudlion of the church it was thought that this might be spared,
but private greed proved too strong, and it was finally taken down, in spite of several public
protests It is interesting to know that the sale of the site did not lealize the amount which
was expected. One corner of the site was left and railed off, and the bodies of those
formerly interred within it were placed there, and a monument was erefled, which forms
a sort of framework for an illustration of the tower and spire made with incised lead-lines
on a marble slab. Long before the Great Fire St, Antholin’s had been repaired and re-edified
by Thomas Knowles, Lord Mayor of London, to whom there was a curious epitaph :

“ Here lyeth graven under this stone
Thomas Knowles both flesh and bone,

Grocer and Alderman, yeares fortie,

Sheriffe and twice Mayor truly.

And for he should not lie alone

Here lyeth with him his good wife Joane,” etc.

Henry Colet, the father of the famous Dean Colet, was a great benefa&or ; he was buried at
Stepney, but in one of the windows of the old church he was represented with his wife, ten
sons and ten daughters. The church was 66 feet long, 54 feet wide, and 44 feet high.
The proceeds of the sale of site and materials went towards the building of St. Antholin’s
Nunhead, and St. Antholins Stepney. St. Antholin’s was completed in 1682.

■ LTAR-RAIL. ST. MATTHEW SPRING GARDENS.

ALLHALL OW S, THAMES STREET

ALL HALLOWS THE GREAT,

WITH ALL HALLOWS THE LESS, THAMES STREET.

All Hallows the Great, or as it was also called, All Hallows
the More, to distinguish it from All Hallows the Less because
the parish was larger, stood on the south side of Thames Street
until 1893, when it was destroyed. A small portion of the
south side of the church is still in existence, the destroyers not
being able to remove it, as it forms the party wall of a house
immediately adjoining. All that can be seen of it is a blank
arch, with a key-stone carved into a cherub’s head, surveying
the ruin with a look of ineffable disgust. This fragment is all that is left of one of Wren’s most
characteristic churches. A painted board now proclaims the faCt that this desirable site is for
sale, but the legality of such sale has yet to be proved, and a sum of money has been collected
for the purpose of trying the question. The parish has been annexed to St. Michael
Paternoster Royal, or, as it is now more commonly called, St. Michael College Hill. The old
distinction of More or Less is more strictly grammatical than Great and Less. All Hallows
had another name, “Ad Fcenum,” on account of the Hay Wharf which was close by, and it
was still further localised by the description of ££ In the Ropery,” for, incredible as it may seem,
ropes were both made and sold in this same Thames Street, in olden times. Before its final
demolition it had undergone considerable mutilation in the loss of the north aisle and tower,
which were removed, ostensibly to widen Thames Street. The plan of the church was very
irregular ; a parallelogram with a north aisle broken in the centre by a tower. This aisle
was not open to the church, but was inclosed by panelled and glazed partitions, screening it
off from the church, and forming a parish vestry and a clergy vestry. The chancel was also
screened off by a fine lofty oak screen, All Hallows being the only church beside St. Peter
Cornhill which, in London, possessed this distinction, and thus handed down the old traditional
rood-screen of the Middle Ages, to more modern times. Plate XXXVII. shows the interior
of the church from the inside of the chancel, looking west through the screen, but this view was
taken after the demolition of the north aisle and tower, the arches of which are shown blocked.
The order used by Wren in the interior was Doric. Flat pilasters carrying their entablature
divided the interior into four bays, and from this entablature sprung a very deep cove, groined
over the windows, which had segmental arched heads. The centre of the ceiling formed a long
square panel, with a very deeply moulded and rich cornice round it. The east and west ends
were both divided into three narrower bays of which the centre ones were the widest, and the

9°

cove was groined over these divisions in a similar way to those at the sides. The soffites of the
arches of the north aisle had square coffers, with circular flowers in each. Although there
was no aisle on the south side, the upper range of windows or clerestory was repeated over a
lower one of larger windows. The church was wainscoted all round, and retained its high
pews. There was a small low gallery at the west end, but probably this was not erefted until
the organ was built in 1749, for neither organ or gallery existed in 1708. In front of the
gallery was a very spirited figure of Charity with her infants treading on Avarice. As both the
superb pulpit, with its sounding board, and the screen, have been taken to St. Margaret
Lothbury, they are described in the chapter devoted to that church. The altar-piece, instead
of being of oak, as it is in most of the City churches, was of stone and of the Corinthian order,
with the Decalogue, Creed, and Lord’s Prayer on marble slabs, and the usual entablature
and pediment, adorned with lamps, cartouches, and cherubs, and with stone images of Moses
and Aaron on each side. The altar itself was of marble, supported by a kneeling figure of
the angel Gabriel. From the roof depended two very fine brass branches, with double tiers
for candles. The screen was the gift of James Jacobsen, who may probably have been of
German extraction hailing from Hamburg, hence the tradition, which is entirely erroneous,
that it was the gift of the Hanse merchants, was made at Hamburg, and was the work of
a foreign artist. That it is essentially native work, a very slight acquaintance with the style
of carving and mouldings to be seen everywhere in the City churches sufficiently establishes.
Jacobsen’s monument still exists, and was probably moved to St. Michael College Hill. The
ugly curved iron supports which were added have not been re-eredled at St. Margaret’s, as
the screen was found to stand very well without them. The font was of marble, very plain
both as to design and cover, and there was a quantity of good carved oak panels. What has
become of all this, with the figure of Charity, the reredos and altar, and other adornments ?
All Hallows the Less, which was not rebuilt after the Great Fire, appears from description
to have been a most curious church. In documents it was called “ Ecclesia Omnium Sanfiorum
super Cellarium, on account of the crypts below it, and Stow in describing it says, “ the
steeple and choir of the church standeth on an arched gate, being the entry to a great house
called Cold Harbrough.” In this house resided Sir John Pultney, four times Lord Mayor, and
rebuilder of St. Laurence Pultney or Pountney. All Hallows the More, before the Fire,
possessed a cloister, for in the parish books it is recorded, that immediately after that awful
conflagration, the north side of the cloister should be repaired and made fit for entrance into
the Tabernacle or temporary church built on the ruins of the old, and that the other sides be
leve fled and made fit for funerals.” Stow mentions that in the choir was a brass, “ to one
1 lam Lichfield, D.D., who was a great student and compiled many books, and that he
made, in his time, three thousand and eighty-three sermons (1 1 1) as appeared by his own
landwriting, and were found when he was dead.” He died in 1447. In the old church,

before the Fire, there was one of those extremely laudatory epitaphs to Queen Elizabeth, which
were very common at the time. r

t ^le c'u,rc^ was a very heavy looking stone strudfure, with a plain tower

terminatmg m a cornice and pediment, and could not be called beautiful. It was 87 feet long,

a W1,C’ ,an, 33 faet kgh’ Hatton preserves to us the name of Mr. William Hamon,

a mason, who built it under Wren’s diredtion.

ST. AUGUSTINE AND ST. FAITH

WATLING STREET.

Built in 1682, the old church was called
“ Ecclesia SanCti Augustini ad Portam,” from
its position at one of the gateways which led
into St. Paul s Close. The saint to whom it
is dedicated is the missionary bishop who was
sent by St. Gregory to convert the Saxons,
and who found, to his surprise and perplexity,
that there was already a British Church, dating from the earliest days
of Christianity, having its own bishops. The earliest notice of the
church is in the survey made by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s,
of the livings in their patronage in 1171. After the Fire the parish
church of St. Faith, which was a part of the crypt of the Cathedral,
was annexed to this. The Watling Street, which left the old Roman
city probably at Dowgate, crossed the site of the present Cathedral,
and when this old Roman city was extended westward and the
Cathedral built, the street was diverted. Wren discovered the
foundations of a row of houses when digging for those of St. Paul’s,
but it was probably when the “ new work ” at St. Paul’s, eastward
of the choir, was carried out, that the old church of St. Faith was
swallowed up, and the parishioners were granted the use of the crypt.

The church, with the exception of the stone tower and lead
spire, is not a very beautiful one, and is very small. Its plan is a
parallelogram divided into nave and aisle, the whole length, and the
tower is placed within this area at the south-west angle. The roof
over the nave is waggon-headed, the aisles are groined, and some
ugly skylights have been opened in the nave roof. The columns
are of the Ionic order, very much stilted, and look very slight, but
both the reredos and font are good of their kind. Before the intro¬
duction of the skylights the church must have been very dark. There
are three windows in the south aisle, but the adjoining street is
very narrow; there are also two at the west end, but these are
obscured by the organ gallery, and there is one only on the north side.
The organ, which was not added until 1767, is by Lewer, and cost

£2I\ 7 5. 6 d. Externally the tower and spire form a prominent objed at the angle of Watling
Street and St. Paul’s Churchyard, and make a pleasing foil to the vast mass of the Cathedral
on the east, as the spire of St. Martin Ludgate does on the west. There was an instance
here of a temporary wooden tabernacle being ereded for the accommodation of the parishioners,
until the church was rebuilt.

During the great Rebellion the then redor, the Rev. Ephraim Udall, was ejeded under
circumstances of great barbarity, his wife, who had been a confirmed invalid and bedridden
for some years, being carried out of the house and deposited in the street. In this church,
on the 7th of January, 1663, Sir Richard Corbet of Shropshire was married to a Miss Vidoria
Udall of St. Paul’s Covent Garden. Both the Udalls (or Uvedales) and the Corbets suffered
terribly in those days of Puritan piety, the latter having their beautiful house at Moreton
Corbet burnt to the ground. The total cost of this church was ^3,14.5, to which sum
the parishioners of both parishes contributed largely; the spire was not added until 1695.
In 1708 there was service here daily. Among the many interred within the precinds of
the church was one who in his lifetime rejoiced in the name of Raphael Titian Correggio
Bartolozzi Coleman !

ST. CLEMENT EAST CHEAP,

WITH ST. MARTIN ORGAR.

Rebuilt in 1686, this is not a favourable specimen of Wren’s

work, and it stands on a most irregular site. The church is in

plan a parallelogram, with a tower at the south-west angle, and

a short aisle of three bays separated by two columns. The aisle,

diminishing rapidly in width, and stopping short of the east

end, contains a gallery, and there is also a western organ gallery.

... , plaster ceiling, which has a large oval with beautiful enrich-

men around it, is remarkably handsome. The whole church has undergone a fearful bedizen-

ment of colour in mediaeval style, and has lost its distimfiively Wrennian charafter. The font

On f T °rgan’ °riginall>r V Harris’ the woodwork is mostly excellent.

Deriod° tht.rea°rS’ a.Dr' ,BenJamm Stone> ^red during the Commonwealth, that

London thmm ^ pT^ u ^ ^ ^ rdigious lib«X 5 he was imprisoned first in

bv pavi’ AoT ° ^m°Uth’Pr0balA to be sold as a slave, but recovering his liberty

theC ^'^we; fir tVdV° T ^ ^ Parsons « Ledtures on

tne c-reed were first delivered in this church If . , . . , .

on account of its admirable oak work it ■ f 7 "°tlCeable m the lntenor> ““P1

surmounted by a balustrade The na i W T* S° eXternally’ havlnS a Plain sfiuare tower

•% - f . pl“'d f" " «•*

ST. BENET PAUL’S WHARF.

WITH ST. PETER PAUL’S WHARF.

This church stands nearly opposite the Civil Service Stores in Queen
Vidtoria Street, and was brought rather prominently into view by
the formation of this fine thoroughfare. Its red brick walls and
tower, and its old tiled roof, give an air of antiquity
to the fabric, which is increased by the effect of the
hipped tiled gables over the north aisle. The plan
is nearly square, with a short western and northern
aisle, the latter separated from the main part of the
church by two columns ; the tower stands at the north-west angle, and there
is a vestry to the north of this again. The main front is in Upper Thames
Street, the site being on a steep declivity. Internally, the ceiling is flat,
carried by a deep cornice supported by columns. The arrangement of
the east and west walls is novel, that of the east being divided into three
bays, of which the centre is the narrowest; the oak reredos, handsomely
panelled and carved, is carried across the lower part of the pilasters, and
the side bays have round-headed windows. The west wall corresponds as
to spacing, but here instead of pilasters are two columns, one disengaged,
the other partly engaged in the south-eastern angle of the tower ; there are
galleries in the north aisle and western aisle. Both the font and the pulpit
are handsome ; the latter, which is placed against the south wall, bears
the legend “ Donum C. M. 1683.” The altar is richly carved and evidently intended to be
seen uncovered ; it is composed of festoons of flowers, with a cherubim and a heart pierced
with two arrows. The supports are four caryatide figures of angels and a group of “ Charity ”
with children ; on the edge is carved cc All that look in love, sing praises to God above, Who
can increase your love.” Stow calls this church St. Benet Hude (or Hithe), and speaks of it as
“a proper church.” It was much frequented by noble families, several of whom resided in
its vicinity, and its proximity to Castle Baynard and the College of Heralds makes the registers
very interesting. It has ceased to exist as a parish church, and has been given to a Welsh
congregation, the service being now performed in that tongue. The parish has been annexed
to St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. The beadle’s staff is surmounted by a silver-gilt image of
St. Benedict, and should properly have gone to St. Nicholas, as all parish rights have ceased.
One notable interment invests this church with more than ordinary interest; Inigo Jones

B B

sleeps his last sleep within its precinfts ! Among others, of lesser note, but of exalted
rank among the Heralds, are Sir Gilbert Dethick or Dethik, Garter King, Gregory King,
Rouge Dragon, John Charles Brooke, Somerset Herald, and others. The plate belonging to
the church was very rich, the gift of Mrs. Ellinor James, and consisted of a large bason
furbelowed and gilt for alms, 55 oz. ; a large dish embossed and gilt, 40 oz. ; a large salver
furbelowed and gilt, 41 oz. ; a pair of embossed candlesticks and sockets, 30 oz. ; a small dish
embossed and gilt, 7 oz. ; a salver of 18 oz., and two others of 14 oz. ; one chalice and patten,
6 oz. ; two chalices without pattens, and several other articles. She also gave largely to the
parochial charities. The Heralds’ College is in this parish. It stands on the site of a house
presented to the Heralds by the Earl of Derby, and Lords Stanley and Strange.

ST. JAMES PICCADILLY (WESTMINSTER).

Soon after the Restoration the buildings in this part
of London increased so rapidly, that the example
set by the Earl of Bedford, in Covent Garden, had
to be followed, and a church was built for the
accommodation of the inhabitants. Colonel Panton
had already covered with houses his estate lying
south and south-west of Leicester Fields, and Henry
Jermyn, Earl of St. Albans (privately married to
Henrietta Maria, Queen Dowager,) did the same on
his, further westward, and ere&ed a market, first
called St. Albans market, and subsequently St. James’s. The scheme for the church, although
entertained, and the site secured long before, did not receive official sandion by Parliament
until 1 68 5 , when this parish was formally separated from St. Martin’s in the Fields. The church
w ic i had been built, was consecrated July 13th, 1684, and in compliment to the King (James
.), it was dedicated to the Apostle St. James. Wren was always rather proud of this church,
amd 111,708, when the Aft was passed for building fifty new churches, he cites St. James
Westminster, to his brother commissioners as a type to be followed, but more for its internal
arrangement and construflion, than for its external architeflural design. With regard to the
atter, there is very little to recommend it, for it is a plain brick building, with stone dressings,
and a brick tower surmounted by a leaden spire at the west end. It lacks both the grace and

for the tota' f m?y , ChurcheS'. He Probably was hampered by the want of funds,
Jermyn and others'™ ^ 7 ^7’°°°’ whlch Was defrayed by private subscriptions from Lord

interior ^which ^ T ^ ^ pkin CXterior’ »«bing can be urged against the

lterior, which is very fine and stately. (Plate XXXVTTT \ ml, i ■ A, ,

there were no difficulties of crooked sites h 7 Y P “ “ ^ regular’ “

divided into nave and aisles, the later no, h ‘“’l " f™ndations’ to deal with. It is

t being so long as the former, and it has a western

.JAMES.. PICCADILLY

INTERIOR VI EW.

JAMES, PICCADILLY

tower The windows are all regularly placed. The aisles are separated from the nave by six
Corinthian columns on each side, with their complete entablature set at right angles to the
nave, and carried back to the side walls, where they rest on corbels. From this entablature
springs the main elliptical ceding, while that over the aisles is a plain barrel vault over each
compartment forming a series of deeply arched recesses. The main ceiling is decorated with
transverse bands of a double guilloche ornament, from column to column, and the same orna¬
ment is carried round the soffites of the arches of the side aisles, which are groined into the
mam vault. The compartment formed by these transverse bands is further divided into three
square panels with flowers in the central one. Each panel has a very richly moulded border to
it, and over the arches of the arcade is a spandrel ornamental panel, filled in with a cherub’s
head and wings, and wreathing. There are galleries round the north, south, and west sides
supported by square piers, panelled in wood, with a wood capping, but their effeft is rather
spoilt by the number of white marble memorial tablets fixed against them. The columns stand
on the gallery fronts, which are treated as a continuous pedestal. At the west end there is a
second gallery for the organ, given by Mary II. (1691), which has a superb case, surmounted
by seated figures with trumpets, and groups of cherubs ; there is also a small choir organ in
front of the main one.

Under the date December 7th, 1684, Evelyn mentions this church in his diary. “I
went to see the new church at St. James’s elegantly built ; the altar was especially adorn’d, the
white marble inclosure curiously and richly carved, the flowers and garlands about the walls by
Mr. Gibbons in wood j a pelican with her young at her breast, just over the altar in the carv’d
compartment and border, invironing the purple velvet fring’d with I. H. S. richly embroider’d,
and most noble plate, were given by Sr R. Geere, to the value (as was said) of £ 200 . There
was no altar anywhere in England, nor has there been any abroad, more handsomely adorned.”

Hatton describes this a little more in detail, and says : “The altar-piece is very curious and
spacious, consisting of fine Boletftion Panels with Architrave Frieze and Cornish of Cedar, and
here is a large compass pediment under which is very admirably carved work, being a Pelican
feeding its young between two doves, also a noble festoon, with exceeding large fruit of several
kinds, fine leaves, etc., all very neatly done in Limewood, and this is fenced in with a strong
and graceful rail and Banister of white marble, artfully carved, and the Footpace within that is
the same kind of stone.”

On reference to Plate XXXIX., it will be seen that most, if not all of this work is still
extant, and comparison can be drawn between this admirable carving, and that existing in
many of the City churches, and attributed to Grinling Gibbons. The most casual observer
cannot fail to discover the immense difference between them, however excellent the latter
may be. The Tables of the Law have (if they ever existed) been replaced by a representation
of the “ Cena ” or Last Supper, in a long panel, which scarcely fits its position, and the side
panelling has figures of the Apostles again, although they all appear in the centre subjeff.
The east window above the altar-piece is of the Venetian type, in two divisions, and is filled
with modern glass.

The font, which has been so frequently illustrated and is therefore not given here, is a
beautiful work of art, and the idea intended to be conveyed by the use of type and anti-type
is very well worked out. The stem takes the form of the tree bearing the forbidden fruit of

the “ knowledge of good and evil,” and the tempter, in the form of a serpent, twines round the
stem. Standing on either side of the tree are our first parents, Adam and Eve. The tree and
its foliage support the marble basin, on the exterior of which, carved in low relief, are the
baptism in Jordan, and the ark floating safely on the waters. Its canopy is also very fine.
Hatton describes it “ as a ‘ spacious ’ angel descending from a celestial choir of cherubims all
gilt with gold.” The seats have been lowered, the wainscoting has been removed, and some
of the side windows have been filled with modern stained glass. Service was held in this church
four times daily, at 6 and 1 1 a.m., and at 3 and 6 p.m. The custom of having portraits of the
rectors hanging in the vestry is followed here as at St. Martin’s in the Fields. The rectory
seems always to have been a stepping stone to higher preferment. Thomas Tenison was the
first rector, resigning the vicarage of St. Martin’s in order to accept this. He died Archbishop
of Canterbury, and two of his successors in the rectory, Wake and Seeker, followed him also
in their preferment to the primatial chair.

In 1738, George, Prince of Wales, gave magnificent draperies of crimson velvet
embroidered with gold, which were valued at ^700, for the altar, pulpit, and reading-desk.
The dimensions of the church are length 84 feet, width 63 feet, height about 42 feet. The
height of the tower and spire is 149 feet.

The experiment of placing the clock dials higher than usual was first tried here, and
as they were made very large with the figures well gilt, it was a success, as the time of day
could be seen a long way off, or according to Hatton, “a vast distance several ways.” There
are numerous mural tablets and monuments, but none of special interest.

the ARMS OF THE STUARTS.

ST. MILDRED BREAD STREET,

WITH ST. MARGARET MOSES.

the re&ors back to 1333
a respedtable antiquity,

The dedication of this church, as well as one in the Poultry, to
St. Mildred, the Saxon Princess and Abbess of Minster, testifies to
the esteem and veneration that the earlier inhabitants of London
had for her. There is but little doubt that the foundation of this
church and parish dates back to Saxon times, yet history is silent as
to the precise date, and only lifts her veil in a.d.

1300, when we hear that the Lord Trenchaunt of
St. Albans rebuilt it ; and Newcourt can only trace
. In 1626 this building, which could then boast of
was repaired and beautified, and the account is

sufficiently detailed to show that it was divided by columns and arches into nave and aisle or
aisles, and that the north wall had to be rebuilt, as well as the arches in the middle of the
church, “with four fair windows over them.”

It is difficult to realize this if the area of the existing church represents the only ground
upon which the ancient one stood, for the present is a very small church, one of the smallest,

9§

yet it boldly asserts itself by its lofty leaded spire (which, by the way, is out of the perpen¬
dicular), tapering far above the lofty warehouses of Cannon Street and Queen ViSoria Street,
which now so closely hem it in. How long it will yet be permitted to point heavenward is
doubtful, since it has long been marked out for destrufiion under that most infamous of a£ts,
called the “ Union of Benefices.” If anyone wishes to see a perfectly untouched City church
just as Wren left it, let him wend his way to St. Mildred’s, which is innocent alike of mediaeval
adornment, or nineteenth-century arrangements. It seems as if the people of this parish have
gone to sleep, and that only the hungry eyes of those on the constant look-out for eligible
sites are open to the extreme desirability of this particular one for the purpose of erefting
towering warehouses upon it, and so still further to block out heaven’s light and air from
the surrounding neighbourhood.

Small and unencumbered as the area looks on the plan, Wren has given us here one of his
most charming productions ; as simple as it is elegant. (Plate XL.) Two deep arches coffered and
panelled, and enriched with foliated scroll-work, and crossed palm branches, span the church
from north to south at both the east and west ends, forming the area above into an exact
square. From this square, and supported by pendentives, springs a beautiful dome, round the
base of which runs a deep band, in bold plaster work, of fruits, flowers, and foliage, while the
surfaces of the pendentives are also enriched with triangular panels, containing foliage in high
relief. The arches spring from very graceful corbels, and the first portion of the arch on each
side is slightly groined to form a smaller semi-circular arch, whose tympanum is decorated with
a kind of scroll ornament, differing in each panel ; the one represented is at the south-west angle,
and the scroll is surmounted by a royal crown, while on the opposite side, the crown is replaced
by the crossed swords of the See of London. The dome is shallow in sedion, and has two
groups of cherubs, in high relief, coupled and supporting crowns, and four groups at the top,
not well designed ; probably intended to be painted, like that at St. Mary Abchurch. The
interior is lighted by large windows on each of the four sides, but that on the north has been
blocked, while the organ is placed in front of the west, and partially conceals it; these win¬
dows have segmental arched heads. The tower and spire stands on the south side near the east
end, and there is a western gallery containing a small organ, with a glazed screen below divided
into three parts, two forming a porch and the remaining one containing, or screening, the stairs
to the gallery; the front of this is beautifully panelled with some fine carving, and is supported
by two rather dwarfed Ionic columns. The sides of the church are panelled in oak, and
the very high pews are in the same material. It is curious that there is no centre alley up to
the altar, the middle of the church being occupied by seats, but the chancel is marked,
as is often the case, by carved figures of the Lion and Unicorn in oak gilt. These beasts are
still to be seen in several of the churches, but in many cases they have been moved and made
to do duty as supporters, not to the royal arms, but to the civic sword-rest. There is a good
sword-rest of rather quaint design, and of English work in this church, also the Lion and
Unicorn which are here illustrated with it, but in the church they are some distance apart. Two
very fine brass branches remain. The reredos, which is a very fine one, is of oak, with
Corinthian columns and entablature, and a segmental arched pediment; besides the usual
altholl r contains paintings of Moses and Aaron. All the carving is good, and

although ,t may not lay claim to be the work of that master hand, Grinling Gibbons, yet

it is undoubtedly of bis school, for mint „„ . ,

Selden, Watson, Dievot of Brussels !md Laurer 'VerS 1!™^ Umler him> amongst them being

and graceful, that no pupil or assistant ever ecu" 11 7 S° eSSentially USht

■ , , ’ , F r , Slbtant ever equalled, much less surpassed it, and durinsr all this

penod when the Ctty churches were being erefied, Gibbons wasWd at work at St Pa dl
Cathedral, Hampton Court Windsor, Petworth, and other buildings, under royal and noU
patronage. The font is of white marble, beautifully carved 7

with cherubs heads and foliage, and is surmounted by an oak
canopy or cover of rich design; but both marble and oak are

SWORD REST AND ROYAL SUPPORTERS.

FONT AND COVER.

now hidden under coats of stone-coloured paint. In the blocked north window there is a very
fine representation of the royal arms of the house of Stuart (see page 96), and below this is a
table of benefactions inscribed, cc The parishioners of St. Mildred Bread Street, for the
preserving of the memory of their noble benefactors, have in gratitude caused these inscriptions
to be here affixed, a.d. 1684,” and here follow the names of Lord Trenchaunt, Sir John
Chadworth or Shadworth, Mr. Copinger, and Mr. Thomas Langham. One of the most
beautiful things in the church is the pulpit and sounding board fixed to the north wall.
It might perhaps be described as what used irreverently to be called a “ three-decker,”
for it contains places for the preacher, the parson, and the clerk. It retains its staircase and
balustrade, and also a wrought-iron rail. The canopy or sounding board is unusually rich
with cherub heads and festoons, and the whole composition is very fine. Indeed, if any student
or lover of seventeenth-century art wishes to see what that art could produce in plaster work,

IOI

oak carving, and metal-work let him go to St. Mildred Bread Street, before the church and
fell work°neS "e §S PaSt’ and bef°re tHe and hammerS haV£ “—need **

Externally, beyond the west front, which is of stone, very little can be seen of the church,
unless one excepts the tower and spire. The west front is curious and piduresque, and
there u nothing m the exterior to prepare one for the charm of the interior and its fittings.
The Crisp fanuly were inhabitants of this parish and great benefadors to the church, and
many of them were buried within its walls; but Sir Nicholas Crisp, the generous and devoted
adherent of Charles I., was interred at St. Paul’s Hammersmith, in the old church lately
destroyed. Strype gives a description of the east window of the old church here, which he
says was full of costly beauty. It had five lights, and contained representations in stained
glass of remarkable events and monuments ; the Spanish Armada, the Gunpowder Plot the
plague of 1625, a monument to Queen Elizabeth, and another to a Captain Nicholas Crisp
and his family, During the reign of James I., in many churches in the City were set up
painted monuments to Elizabeth, with most extraordinary and fulsome epitaphs.

The church of St. Margaret “ Moses,” was not rebuilt after the Fire, but the parish was
annexed to St. Mildred s. Its distinguishing title of Moses, was according to Stow derived
from one “ Moyses ” who rebuilt it. It stood in Friday Street.

ALL HALLOWS BREAD STREET,

WITH ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST WATLING STREET.

Eighteen years elapsed after the destru&ion of this church
in the Great Fire, before the parishioners .set about rebuilding
it. St. John’s Wading Street which adjoined it was never
rebuilt, and All Hallows served for the two parishes. In
1680 the vestry obtained a grant of £ 600 from the Coal
Tax, and with that and other money they had borrowed and
raised by subscription, they rebuilt this in 1684., but the tower was not added until 1697.
The old church possessed a tower and spire, for Stow records that in 1559 a violent storm
of thunder and lightning destroyed about ten feet of the top, and that the whole spire was
taken down to the level of the tower, to save the parish the expense of rebuilding it. It also
appears that in 1 53 1 a serious affray took place between two priests in the church, when bloodshed
ensued and the church was closed for a month, the two brawlers having to do penance by
walking bare-footed, bare-headed and bare-legged, from St. Paul’s along Cheapside and Cornhill,
while repeating the penitential psalms. The times were indeed stormy for the old church,
but there is another record which sheds a lustre on it, for to the font of this church was brought

D D

102

to be baptized John Milton, the poet. He was born in Bread Street hard by, in a house
known by the sign of the “ Spread Eagle,” and here he spent his early years. The church
which replaced this old one might not have been a strikingly beautiful specimen of Wren’s
genius, but its association with Milton’s name and fame would alone have been sufficient to
preserve it in any city but London. It was a plain parallelogram without aisles, with a
tower at the south-west corner, preceded by a porch and vestibule, and on the south side was
a sort of transept or chapel with a curious projecting gallery above and a vestry beneath : this
transept probably occupied the position of the Beaumont chapel in the old church, which also
went by the name of the Salters’ Chapel. The ceiling was flat, with plaster enrichments and
coved sides, and at the west end was a gallery supported in the centre by a Corinthian
column. The altar-piece which was very fine and lofty, was enriched with a good deal of
very beautiful carving, and had a large pediment above, surmounted by the royal arms, lamps,
and flaming tapers, altogether a very rich piece of work ; the pulpit and sounding board
were equally rich. Externally the church, standing at the corner of Watling Street and Bread
Street, had only the north and west sides open. It was of stone, very plain, with a series of
eight round-headed windows placed rather close together. A plain parapet, surmounting a
projecting cornice, concealed the roof, high above which rose the tower, the upper part very
well designed. The belfry stage had three round-headed lights on each side, with carved key¬
stones and a very bold projecting cornice, and finished with a parapet and four lofty stone
obelisks at the corners, almost Gothic in outline. The carving of the festooned wreaths on
the stage below the belfry was very bold and effective, and it certainly was one of Wren’s best
towers. Its destruction, to make room for warehouses and offices, is a matter of everlasting
regret, and a standing reproach to the City.

The church was 72 feet long by 35 feet wide and about 30 feet high; the cost was
^3j348 7s • 2d- It was one of the Archbishop’s “peculiars,” exempt from the jurisdiction of
the Bishop of London. All Hallows Poplar was built out of the proceeds of the sale of the
site and materials.

ST. MARTIN LUDGATE.

The great popularity which the sainted Bishop of Tours enjoyed in
this country could not be better demonstrated than by the existence
of a church dedicated to him, immediately within the walls of the City
and close to one of the most important gates. This gate crossed
Ludgate Hill only a few feet westward of the church, and starting
westward at right angles to it, flanked the public street for some little
distance before it turned southward towards the river. The deviation
was of medieval origin, and consequent upon the Dominican Priory, or
Blackfriars, being included within the walls, but the ward in which

most of the parish is situated is known as Farringdon Without.

This church must have been of very ancient foundation, although there is no historical
mention of it before 1322, when the patronage was vested in the Abbot and Convent of
Westminster. It is much to be regretted that they had no Ralph de Diceto to give us a record
of the livings in their gift in early times, such as he gave us of the cathedral church of St.
Paul. At the suppression the patronage was granted to the Bishops of London. Few of
the City churches have such interesting records, or have been able to preserve them so well
as St. Martin’s. It possesses an ancient parchment book, the entries in which begin in the
twelfth year of the reign of Henry IV., and a perusal of its pages gives us great insight into,
and helps us to a fuller knowledge of, what these old City churches were like, and how faith¬
fully they represented the desires and aspirations, the hopes and fears, of generation after
generation of worshippers, who once thronged their sacred precin&s. St. Martin’s must have
been a church of some size, with its east end pointing up the hill, for we find two, if not more,
chapels mentioned. One Richard Baret, in 1482, desired to be buried at St. Martin’s, “to
wit, within the chapel of the same church where I was woned to sit before the image of St.
James.” Robert Howner, 1380, after desiring his body to be buried here, bequeathed “ 6d to
Robert, Chaplain of the Blessed Virgin, and two marks per an. to the repairs of the Chapel.”
There was another chapel, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, for John Kermerdyn, who was
re&or in 1351, met his parishioners there to fix the charges for tolling the bells. The list of
vestments, corporas cloths, and frontals, was very voluminous. The principal colours seem to
have been blue, white, red, and cloth of gold. The church plate was very rich, for we read
of seven chalices with their patens, of silver crosses, cups, censers, ships, chrismatories, taber¬
nacles, and a “ bezile.” In 1612 there was only one chalice left, and another had to be
borrowed for the administration of the Sacrament, until Henry Syvedall, “ at his own proper
cost, did provide one.” The fashion of giving them set in once more, and “ Ralph Brooke of

his piety gave for the adorning of the pulpit one cushion of crimson velvet with gold tassels,
and Sir Francis Bridge.! gave for the pulpit a crimson velvet hanging and border fringed
with gold, and a cushion, and to the altar a cloth of velvet and Cushion fringed with gold, and
a prayer-book bound in velvet and embroidered in velvet and gold.

The reign of the “ Saints ” naturally made its mark on this church, and Dr. Jermin, the
reftor, was deprived of the living. The pulpit was placed against the altar-piece, entirely
blocking the Ten Com¬
mandments, a fad al¬
luded to by Dr. Jermin’s
successor in the follow¬
ing amusing couplet :

“ The fifth commandment did
their souls so gall,

They moved their canting tub to
hide them all,”

and there it remained
until 1660. A few short
years and then the old
church went down before
the Great Fire, which
must have been at its
greatest heat here, for
the melted lead from the
long roofs of the cathe¬
dral ran down Ludgate
Hill in a stream.

The church was not
rebuilt until eighteen
years after this, and al¬
though this is recorded in
the “ Parentalia,” the only

, . , , / INTERNAL DOOR-CASE.

entry m the parish book

is, that “ D' Christopher Wren had staked off 127 feet of ground, part of the Stationers garden
which the parish purchased for £25.” The plan is nearly a square, and is similar in arrange¬
ment to St. Anne and St. Agnes. The main portion forms a Greek cross, with plain barrel
vaults over each arm, intersecting in the centre and forming a groin, and the four square
compartments in the corners have flat ceilings at a lower level. Four lofty composite columns
on unusually Ugh and stilted bases, are placed centrally in the square, and support a very rich
entablature from which springs the vaulted ceiling. There are three windows on the north
side, and three on the west (now blocked). The tower is placed in the centre of the south
side and has roomy vestibules on either side of it, which are the same height as the aisles, and
with the tower form three lofty arches, with panelled soffites opening into the church, and with

io5

entrances from the street, but the two side entrances have lately been blocked, and only the
centra door, under the tower, is now used. This church, which was closed for some years
has only recently been re-opened, and considerable alterations have been made in the interior
All the bodtes have been removed from under the pavement, which is three feet above the
street level; the east end has been re-arranged for a choir, and the seats have been lowered
The internal door-cases and panelling, which screen
off the vestibules and tower, are very good,
and vary in design. The church is now entered
from the side ones only. The centre of the groin
has a circular flower, from which used to hang a
very fine brass chandelier. The font, inclosed by
a rail, is handsome, and has on it one of those
curious inscriptions in Greek which can be read
either backwards or forwards —

NITON : ANOMHMA : MH : MONAN : OTIN

Literally “ cleanse my transgression not my outer part
only.” The same inscription occurs in one or two
other places in this country and in France, and it is
also to be found at Santa Sophia, Constantinople. It
is curious that the date on this font is 1673, eleven
years before the church was built. The altar-piece
has four Corinthian pilasters, with an entablature
and pediment, and above these an attic stage, with
pilasters and divided pediment, in the centre of
which were the royal arms, standing between two
lamps. The Decalogue occupies the centre division,
and the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer the outer
ones. Above the Commandments, in the centre of
a “ glory,” is the Holy Lamb between two cheru¬
bim, and the whole was enriched with festoons
and palm branches, but a good deal of this has
now disappeared. The pulpit is a fine specimen
of carved work. Both the walls, up to nine feet
in height, and the high, stilted bases of the four
central columns are wainscoted. Some of the
wood-carving from St. Mary Magdalen, which was
uninjured, has been worked in here, and the sword rest, which is a very plain one, also finds a
place. The galleries which formerly existed at the south and west sides have been swept away,
except a portion of the west one, which now forms a regular organ loft, and looks very well.
The old carved ledgers have been retained in the new stone paving in the nave ; that of the
chancel is in black and white marble squares, and the steps to the altar, which is well elevated
(standing five steps above the nave), are of polished black marble. The altar-rail is returned,

E E

io6

and is an oak balustrade. The choir seats and low chancel screen are made out of the old oak
fittings, and some very beautiful open panels are introduced. At the east end of both aisles
hang two oil paintings; that on the north was the old altar-piece of St. Mary Magdalen,
while that on the south, a very good one, is St. Martin dividing his cloak. The whole of the
re-arrangement, re-seating, and other alterations, have been carried out in a thoroughly
conservative spirit, and are distinguished for their solidity, and handsome appearance. The
paint has been cleared off the columns, and the capitals have been gilt.

Externally the church can be seen only on the south side. It is divided into three
compartments, of which the tower forms the centre. The lowest stage has three doorways,
only the central one being used ; then above these come three large windows, and the two
side divisions terminate in a cornice and parapet, which stop against the tower, and are set a
little back, so that the latter projeds slightly. The square of the tower is carried up a stage
above this, with a belfry light above a blank panel ; this stage is finished with a bold cornice,
and on each side are large scroll buttresses, which finish on the parapet of the side divisions.
Above the cornice the square turns into an oft agon, with scroll buttresses at each angle, and
above this starts the timber and lead spire, the lower part swelling out into an octangular
cupola, with small spire lights. This carries an open wrought-iron balcony, surrounding an
open lantern, from which starts the tapering spire, surmounted in turn by a vane. The whole
composition, which is very graceful, has only very recently been thoroughly repaired and
re-leaded. From the balcony the splendid view of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which forms the
frontispiece to this work, was taken. The contrast between this slender, graceful spire,
standing in relief, with the overpowering mass of the cathedral as a background, and the
winding and ascending street, formed one of the most beautiful and picturesque views that
could be seen in any city, but, alas ! an ugly railway bridge, rendered perfectly hideous in
the attempt to make it ornamental, has ruined this view for ever. (Plate XLI.)

The dimensions of the church are 57 feet in length from east to west, 66 feet in breadth
from north to south, and it is about 59 feet high. The spire is 168 feet in height.

When St. Mary Magdalen Fish Street Hill was burnt down, that parish was annexed to
this, and the redtor of St. Mary Magdalen is now the redtor of the united parishes.

The small brass, of a benefadtor, now fixed against the south wall in St. Martin’s, was in
the church of St. Mary Magdalen, and was saved from the Fire.

ST. BENET GRACECHURCH,

WITH ST. LEONARD EASTCHEAP.

At the junction of Gracechurch Street and Fenchurch Street
formerly stood this very beautiful little church, its graceful
tower and spire grouping well with the Monument and the
spire of St. Magnus. It was destroyed
about five-and-twenty years ago, and
another church was built out of the proceeds of the sale of the site
and materials, in the Bow Road, Stepney, which, on a recent visit,
was quite as poorly attended as the old church was said to be, although
one of the principal arguments for the destruction of these churches was,
that by removing them and their endowments to crowded suburbs, much
good would be done. St. Benet’s church was small but very nicely pro¬
portioned. It was a simple parallelogram, without aisles, of five bays,
with a groined plaster ceiling. The west end was divided into two bays,
one occupied by the tower, the other by a vestibule, and a staircase to the
west gallery. The reredos was unusually rich in carving, and beside the
usual paintings of Moses and Aaron had a painted perspective above,
representing the arched roof and columns of a building appearing from
under the folds of a velvet festooned-curtain, raised by cupids. The font
was nicely carved and had a good canopy, and the pulpit and sounding
board was richly adorned with carving and parquetry. The body of the
church was lighted by a double range of windows, those in the lower tier
being round-headed, and above these was a second tier, of circular
form. The tower was lofty, and was surmounted by a leaden cupola,
lantern, and spire. The internal groining sprung from corbels, and was
slightly flattened, being more of an ellipse than a true semicircle ; each
bay was divided by a broad band of ornament. The internal dimensions
were only 60 feet long by 30 feet wide by 32 feet high. The
retained its two altar lights. It was finished in

THE STEEPLE.

church had always
685 at a cost of ^3,583 gr. 5 d.

ST. ALBAN WOOD STREET,

WITH ST. OLAVE SILVER STREET.

In Strype’s edition of Stow’s “Survey” there occurs a very
curious passage in connexion with this church, going, as
it does, to prove the extreme antiquity of the building,
which is certainly one of the most interesting in the
whole City. He describes it as being “ of great antiquity
from the manner of the turning of the arches of the
windows, and the capitals of the columns,” and adds that
Roman bricks were used in its construction. This passage,
which by the way is not to be found in the original edition,
shows unmistakably that these marks of antiquity were sufficiently in evidence to draw his
attention and excite his curiosity. Offa, the first royal founder of the Abbey of St. Alban,
is credited by Matthew Paris with having been the first builder of this church, which doubtless
belonged to the Abbey of St. Alban in 1077, for we read that Abbot Paul exchanged the
right of presentation to it for one belonging to the Abbey of Westminster. Offa, King of
Mercia, is not the only royal name connected with the church, for the foundation is also
attributed to Athelstane, a.d. 924, who is said, like the former, to have had a house or palace at
the east end of the church. Athelstane’s name still survives in Adel Street, which Stow says was
in his day called King Adel Street. After Stow’s time, in course of years, the church became
so ruinous, that Inigo Jones, Sir Henry Spiller, and others, were deputed to examine it,
and the result of their deliberations was to the effeCf that unless the parishioners pulled it down
at once it would tumble down about their heads — “ That they must suddenly pluck it down,
or it would suddenly prevent that labour and fall to the ground of itself.” This was in
an<3 t^le following year the church was rebuilt by Inigo Jones, and is said to have perished
in the Great Fire only thirty-two years afterwards! It is an interesting question whether
this church did perish, and whether Wren had to entirely rebuild it? Judging from
internal evidence, the answer would seem to be that the walls and windows and arches are
of Inigo Jones’s original structure, and that Wren only re-roofed and repaired it where
necessary, and added or rebuilt the tower; on this latter point the “Parentalia” is clear. The
p an is completely Gothic, with a nave, north and south aisles, and a tower at the western end
ot the north aisle. On the north side of this same aisle, in the last bay, is a chapel. The
south aisle is not coterminous with the nave, but stops short westward by two bays, the
remainder of the aisle being occupied by the Reflory House, now used as offices; the five¬
sided apse is only a recent addition to the fabric. The body of the church terminates

109

‘ Straight, H"e ™th Ae f le,S> and had a three-light east window super-mullioned,
with tracery head, the centre of wh.ch was a many-foiled circle. The west window is a very
fair specimen of an ordinary five-light Perpendicular window, with transom and good tracery
head; the lights are all cinque-foiled. The clerestory windows are coupled over each arch,

and are traceried,
as are also the
aisle windows,
but the stone¬
work of these is
probably a re¬
storation. The
piers are clus¬
tered, and are
precisely what
one would find
in an ordinary
fifteenth -century
church. The
arches are well
moulded in a
similar manner,
but are without
hood mouldings.
From the capitals
of the piers run
vaulting shafts,
with caps and
bases, which sup¬
port a rather flat
plaster vault, in¬
tersected by well
moulded ribs,
with bosses at
the intersections.
T he aisles are also

INTERIOR VIEW, LOOKING WEST. Vaulted, blit with

a flat quadripar¬
tite vault springing from corbels on the wall side, and from the caps on the arcade side. The
whole of this detail looks too good for Wren, but only in the sense that it shows a greater
knowledge of the late Gothic which preceded it, than is suggested by the version of it
which he gives us at St. Mary Aldermary, and one cannot help thinking that this is the
original church which Inigo Jones built for the parishioners in 1634, as the detail is so similar
to that in other of his churches. Probably all the fittings perished in the Great Fire, and very

F F

I IO

little is left of those with which Wren may be supposed to have replaced them. The interior
has been modernized, the seats cut down, and the chancel stalled with the ordinary modern
type of seats. The pulpit (which is Wren’s) has also been cut down, and has lost its sounding
board, but still retains its quaint old hour-glass in a brass frame. In consequence of the
alteration at the east end of the church, and the erection of the apse, the old oak altar-piece
has gone. Hatton describes it in the following words “ The altar-piece is very ornamental,
consisting of four columns fluted with their bases, pedestal and entablature, and open pediment
of the Corinthian order. And over each column, upon acroters, is a lamp with a gilded taper.
Between the inner columns are the ten commandments done in gold letters upon black ;
between the two northward is the Lord’s Prayer, and the two southward the Creed done
in gold upon blue. Over the commandments is a glory between two cherubims, and above
the cornish the Queen’s arms, with the supporters, helmet, and crest richly carved under
a triangular pediment, and on the north and south side of the above described ornaments are
two large cartouches ; all which parts are carved in fine wainscot.”

There was a west gallery with deeply moulded front, and the church was wainscoted
round, seven feet high. The old sounding board was a hexagon, and the cornice was
enriched with cherubs and foliage. Two large brass branches hung from the roof, and on one
of the monuments on the north side is this inscription : — “ Near this place lies the body
of Benjamin Harvey, Esq., late Major to the Yellow Regiment of Trained bands, who, by his
last will, gave the white marble font to this parish church, which was set up by Joseph Rand,
his executor; he died the 14th December, 1684, aged 44 years.” In the old church
were buried the following Lord Mayors of London : — Thomas Catworth, or Chatworth, 1443 ;
John Woodcock, 1405 ; and Thomas Halton, 1550; and Sir Richard Illingworth, Baron of
the Exchequer. Stow quotes another epitaph, existing in his time :

“ Hie jacet Tom Short-hose

Sine Tomb, sine sheets, sine riches

Qui vixit sine gown

Sine cloak, sine shirt, sine ‘ Britches.’ ”

Externally, the best part of the design is the tower, which is 92 feet in height. It has
eight pinnacles, one at each corner, and one in the centre of each side, all similar in
design, panelled and crocketed ; between them is an open-work parapet of Gothic design.
Each side is divided by a flat buttress in the centre, with two belfry windows having traceried
heads, in each compartment of the upper stage. A horizontal string-course separates this upper
stage from the next, which has two single-light windows on each side. Below this is
a narrower stage divided by horizontal string-courses, and containing circular windows with
foliations. The lowest stage has a large three-light window on both the north and west sides.
Under the great west window of the nave is a Gothic door of poor design and debased detail,
hardly in keeping with the remainder of the detail of the windows and arches. The side
buttresses of the tower are carried down to the ground, but the centre one is corbelled out
above the second stage; they are all of slight projeflion. The sides of the west front are
flanked with square buttresses, surmounted by pedestals, which are without finish, and look
as if they were intended for vases. The west gable is finished with a parapet, whose sloping

1 1 1

.des are decorated wuh panels. The length of the church, without the new apse, is about 66
feet, and the breadth across .inching the chapel, 59 feet ; the height is about 33 feet The
church was finished. in 1685 at a total cost of ^65, and the organ was built, by
subscription, mr^. The parish church of St. Olave stood at the north end of Noble Street
and perishing in the Great Fire, was not rebuilt. The parish was annexed to St. Albans’
In I572 Cornelius jhanson, supposed to be the father of the celebrated painter, was married
to Joan Warde in this church, and in the churchyard were interred the remains of the
subjects who had been cut up for anatomy at Barber-Surgeons’ Hall.

ST. MARY MAGDALEN OLD FISH STREET,

WITH ST. GREGORY BY ST. PAUL’S.

The Union of Benefices Ad is not answerable for the destruction of
this church, although its clauses have been ultimately applied to its
revenues. A fire broke out in a neighbouring warehouse stored with
millinery, and the fierceness of the flames extended
to the roof of the church and completely gutted it.

This happened about nine or ten years ago, when,
although insured, the church was not rebuilt, the
parish being annexed to St. Martin Ludgate, and
the redor transferred to that church. The interior had been altered some
time previously by Mr. Butterfield, in his own peculiar style. It was not
a handsome church architedurally, but whatever might have been wanting
in that resped was amply made up for by the extreme beauty of its fittings.

The gallery front had the most exquisite carvings of fruit and flowers,
apparently executed in a lighter wood, and undoubtedly from the hand of
that incomparable artist, Grinling Gibbons. The plan was a parallelogram
without aisles, and rather unusually wide, and there was a gallery on the west
and north sides only. The ceiling was flat, with a deep cove groined over
the windows on the south and east sides. The square panel in the centre
was surrounded by a very deep and rich cornice, and had a circular flower
in the centre. The windows, of which there were four on the south side,
were round-headed and decorated externally with pilasters and carved
trusses, and keystones carried up to the underside of the stone cornice, which was of bold
projection and finished with a parapet and stone balustrade. The small tower was placed at the
north-west corner, and had a curious stone lantern composed of a diminishing range of oftagonal
steps, surmounted by a lantern with openings on the eight sides, and finished at the top with a
pyramidal pedestal supporting a stone vase.

The altar-piece was handsome and inclosed a painting of the Transfiguration, by Robert
Browne, executed in 1720. The pulpit, placed against the south wall, had a very handsomely
carved sounding board. The font was good, with a carved oak cover, and enriched with

I 12

cherubim; on it was a coat of arms, a cross between four bucks trippant borne on a lozenge.
At the west end was a small brass tablet, with the figure of a man at the side, also the date
i 5 86, and the following inscription upon it. (This figure is now in St. Martin Ludgate.)

“ In God the Lord put all your truste So Lord increase good councelers

Repente your formar wicked waies And preachers of His Holie Worde

Elizabethe our Queen most juste Mislike off all papistes disiers

Bless her O Lord in all her date. O Lord, cut them off with thy sworde.

How small so ever the gifte shal be
Thanke God for him who gave it thee
Twelve penie loaves to twelve poor foulkes
Gave every Sabbath day for aye.”

The individual thus anxious to record his gift of twelve penny loaves was a Thomas
Berrie, “ merchant of the staple.”

The church was finished in 1685, and its dimensions were, length 60 feet, width
48 feet, and height 30 feet, the cost of rebuilding was ^4,291 12s. 9 d.

ST. MATTHEW FRIDAY STREET,

WITH ST. PETER CHEAP.

This, which was one of the smallest of the City churches, was
situated on the west side of Friday Street, Cheapside, and was
dedicated to St. Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist. The
patronage formerly belonged to the Abbey of Westminster, and
was afterwards vested in the Bishop of London, but in 1708 it
was described as being in the gift of the Duke of Montague.
Stow has very little to say about it, calling it only a “ proper church.” Before his time, it
had been rebuilt (in 1501) by Sir John Shaw, Lord Mayor, and both this and the neighbouring
church of St. Peter Westcheap falling a prey to the flames, St. Matthew’s alone was rebuilt
and the other parish annexed to it, the one church serving for the two parishes.

It was a plain parallelogram in plan, without aisles, but with a tower at the south-west
corner, and a vestibule and vestry beyond. Its total length was only 60 feet, and its
width was 33 feet, while the height of the tower was only 74 feet. The interior was
exceedingly plain, with a flat ceiling and coved sides; it was principally lighted from
the east end, where there was a range of five round-headed windows, forming a sort of
arcade. Externally these were carried on a stylobate, and had flat pilasters between them.
Above the windows was a projecting cornice which was carried round the church, and a stone
parapet and balustrade completed the composition. There was a west gallery, and other
woodwork, pulpit seats, reredos, and wainscoting which were of oak, but of no special merit.
The pulpit, which was placed against the north wall, was, with the reredos, the altar, and the
rails, the gift of James Smyth, Esq., in 1685, in which year the church was finished at a
cost of ^"2,3 8 1 8j-. 2 d. Only the end in Friday Street was of stone, and the sides and tower
were in red brick. Sir Hugh Middleton, of New River fame, was once churchwarden here.

ST. MARY ABCHURCH,

WITH ST. LAWRENCE POUNTNEY.

Neither beautiful or striking externally, the interior
of this church is not only exceedingly beautiful,
but also very curious, and the richness of the
decorations renders it a complete storehouse of late
seventeenth century art, and one wherein that art
can be studied to the greatest advantage, for three
of the greatest artists of their day, to wit, Sir
Christopher Wren, architect ; Sir James Thornhill,
painter ; and Grinling Gibbons, wood-carver, com¬
bined in their efforts to make it all glorious within. Situated on the west side
of Abchurch Lane, it receives its distinguishing title from its position on
ground rising rapidly from the river ; for in old records it is often called
Upchurch, which has been corrupted to “ Abchurch.” In plan it is
nearly a square, 60 feet broad by 65 feet long, and unencumbered with
pillars, except for one at the west end, which is introduced to make the
remainder of the area quite square, and is in a line with the tower,
which proje&s into the church at the north-west angle ; the space behind
this column is occupied by a west gallery above, with a vestibule and vestry
below. The internal area is domed, the dome being carried by penden-
tives springing from Corinthian pilasters and corbels, from eight points
in the circle ; these pendentives, which are arched between each springer,
are groined back into the angles of the square. The arches have no
enrichment whatever, but at their crown there is a very bold circular
cantilever cornice, from which springs the dome proper, which is pierced
on the north, south, east, and west sides by oval lucarne lights (Plate
XLII.) ; a difficult arrangement to describe, but beautifully simple in
execution. On the east wall there are two large windows, and over
them oval ones, while the centre window of this side is blocked by the
lofty oak altar-piece. On the south side is a similar arrangement of
windows, but here the central one is glazed, and the south-west one gives
place to a door, which has a most beautiful carved-oak door-case, with
Composite pilasters and segmental arched pediment, the tympanum of which
is filled with beautiful carving in high relief, and the frieze is also carved

G G

ii4

with foliage flowers, and shell patterns ; the doorway itself is arched, and vases on square
pedestals flank the pediment. The whole composition is most charmingly proportioned,
and the carving is very beautifbl. Across the west end, separating the vestry and vestibule
from the church, and beneath the west gallery, is a panelled oak screen with another beautiful
door-case, having an arched head, more simple in design than the south door-case, with an
oval centre (page 115). The front of the gallery above is a fine specimen of moulded and

carved panel work, and the upper
panels of the seats, below this
screen, have pierced scroll panels
of exquisite beauty and varied
design (page 1 16). The church is
wainscoted round 1 1 feet high,
the seats have been cut down, and
the chancel has been stalled out
of the old material, and executed
with a little more regard to style
and fitness than one finds else¬
where. A low oak screen now
separates the chancel from the
body of the church, and in the
top of this are more of those
carved scroll pierced panels. The
chancel floor has been relaid with
an ornamental pavement. The
altar, which is original and left
perfectly uncovered, has a ve
neered top and scroll supports with
cherubs’ heads ; it is enclosed in
a rail with turned and twisted oak
balusters. Two very modern¬
looking Glastonbury chairs flank
it north and south. The chief
glory of the church is the mag¬
nificent carved altar-piece, which
Hatton fitly describes as the
“ most magnificent carved work
I have thus far met with. As the plate shows this so clearly it would be superfluous to describe
it, but it may be mentioned that all the beautiful wreath and festoon work is really from
the hands of Grinling Gibbons, and, dreadful to relate, when Sir [ames Thornhill painted
the dome, he thought he could improve these flowers and fruits by painting them in their
natural colours. In the course of time the painting became very shabby, and then a coating of
stone-coloured paint was given to them ; after this they were for the third time painted,
and this time grained in imitation of oak ! The pulpit, with its sounding board, is also very fine,

”5

but similar in design to others of Wren’s; it retains its original stairease. The font eover
which is of carved oak, ,s curious, and not unlike that in the church of St Magnus On
a carved ofiagonal base there is a four-sided pedestal, with little niches on each side containing
statuettes of the four Evangelists; the sides have curved pediments, leading up into a pyramidal

roof, and ending with
a circular finial, with a
screw to work it up and
down as wanted. Sir
James Thornhill’s paint¬
ings in the dome have
now become exceedingly
dark and discoloured,
and it is difficult to see
what the subjects are,
except on a very bright
day. The first range
between the lucarne
lights are evidently the
Christian virtues and
graces, with shells and
heavy wreath work, etc.,
and above is the heavenly
host adoring the name
of Jehovah, in Hebrew
at the top. Always diffi¬
cult to see, they are still
more so now on account
of the stained glass in
the windows. There is
a fine monument on the
east wall, shown on the
plate, to Sir Patience
Ward, Lord Mayor
1696.

Externally, the church
is not much seen ex-

GALLERY FRONT AND DOOR INTO VESTRY. Cept On the SOUth side,

where there is an open

yard, once the churchyard, but now thrown open by a dispensation from the Bishop of
London. It is of red brick with stone quoins, as is also the tower, which is surmounted by a
lofty lead-covered spire, 140 feet in height. The body of the church was stuccoed over, and
the roof was formerly covered with lead, but is now covered with slates. The church
was finished in 1686. Although not exactly in the same untouched state as St. Mildreds

ii 6

Bread Street, the alterations made in it of late years have been carried out in a more
conservative manner, and there are no glaring medievalisms to complain of. Originally it was
in the gift of the Prior and Convent of St. Mary Overie, but it passed from them to the
neighbouring college of Corpus Christi, founded in the church of St. Lawrence Pountney,
and again, at the suppression, passed to the Crown, and was then given to Archbishop
Parker, who presented it in 1568 to Corpus Christi
College at Cambridge. St. Lawrence Pountney or Poultney,
destroyed in the Great Fire, was not rebuilt. It received
its second name (to distinguish it from St. Lawrence
Jewry) from Sir John Poultney, Lord Mayor in 1330,
who rebuilt it and founded the Corpus Christi college for
twelve chaplains and a master. The old church of St.

CARVED AND PIERCED PANELS.

Lawrence was one of the most conspicuous before the Great Fire, as it possessed a very high
spire, and in the old views of London it forms a very striking objedf. The churchyard is still
preserved, and with its old trees and sunken tombs, is like a little green oasis in the surrounding
desert of houses.

The reftors of the united parishes were non-resident for many years (1733 to 1816), and
five curates in succession served the living. They were all masters or under-masters at

1I7

Merchant Taylors’ School, the chief reason for which was a long lawsuit between the redtors
and parishioners respe&ng the parsonage house. In the parish of St. Lawrence stood the old
Merchant Taylors School tn Suffolk Lane, and on the west side of Lawrence Pountney Hill
there is an old undercroft or crypt, with a stone vault and ribs. Merchant Taylors' School
founded in IS6i by the master, wardens, and assistants of the company, is supposed to occupy’
the site of the Manor of the Rose,” a town house formerly belonging to one of the Dukes
of Buckingham.

THE FONT COVER.

H H

ST. ANDREW HOLBORN.

This was one of the largest and most densely
populated parishes, “ beyond the walls,” al¬
though a large portion was included within the
liberties of the City. From very early times
it possessed a church on this same site, the
patronage being given to the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul’s in 1297. Although the
church escaped the flames of 1666, it had, in
another twenty years, become so ruinous, that
it was found necessary to rebuild it, and the present noble structure, one of Wren s largest
churches, was commenced in 1686. Built on the rising slope of the hill westward of the
Fleet, it was always a most conspicuous object, but the formation of the Holborn ViaduCt has
shorn it of some of its dignity, and to those who remember it in the days previous to this
alteration, when one had to ascend by many steps unto this House of the Lord, it seems
strange that this has all been reversed, and that now one has to descend many steps to enter
it. The body of the church has a sort of half-buried look.

Structurally, it is basilican in plan, having nave and aisles separated by seven arches on
either side, with north and south vestries flanking a shallow chancel, and a fine western tower
with roomy vestibules, north and south, containing the approaches to the galleries. The
lower part of the tower, is older than the church, being a survival from the mediaeval, but
it has been recased and heightened. Internally, however, the three old arches which opened
respectively into the aisles and nave remain. The west window also is ancient, and the lower
part of the buttresses. There are galleries north, south, and west, the latter containing a fine
organ. These galleries are supported by piers encased in oak panelling, and from them arise
plinths, on which are placed Corinthian columns, with a kind of apology for an entablature
which should have been made of the right proportion, or omitted altogether. From this
springs the elliptical curve of the plaster ceiling, which, with the intersecting groins of the
aisles, forms something of an arch between each column. The spandrels are filled with
beautiful foliage and riband, flowers and fruit, worked in plaster in high relief, somewhat similar
to St. Clement Danes, and in the centre is a cherub’s head and wings, from which spring the
divisions between the panels of the ceiling. These are plain squares with broad moulded
borders, beautifully enriched with foliage. In the centres there were formerly flowers in bold
relief, but these have in several places given way to ugly sun-burners. The centre of the
groins over the side aisles also have flowers at the intersections. The ceiling over the sacrarium
is more elaborate, and has smaller panels, more highly enriched. The east window is lofty,
and in six compartments, the central upper one being arched. This window is filled with
early eighteenth century glass by Price of York (1718), the subjeCt in the lower three

HOLBORN

II9

compartments being the Last Supper and that of the upper three the Ascension. On each side
of the Last Supper are paintings, in boldly moulded frames, of St. Peter and St. Andrew and
in the smaller panels above these, the Holy Family and St. John the Baptist. The glass’ first
placed in the east window (before 1718) represented the royal arms of the House of Stuart.
This has been moved to the east window of the north aisle, which also contains the arms
of the donor, Thomas Hodgson, while the corresponding window on the opposite side contains
the arms of John Thavie, a great benefaflor. The reredos has undergone considerable
mutilation and alteration ; the six lamps have all been removed, together with a good deal of
the carving, including the tables of the Law, and the space has been filled in with a very weak
mediaeval design. The chancel has been stalled for a choir, but the
design is quite out of keeping with the rest of the church, and the
nicely carved pulpit has been placed on a nondescript base, and has
lost its old sounding board and staircase. The seating is new. There
is a rest of wrought iron for the Lord Mayor’s state sword, and at the
westernmost seats are two other standards or ornaments of wrought
iron, which may originally have been lamp stands. The font is of the
usual baluster shape, and without a cover, although a fine carved one
formerly existed. It now stands at the east end of the north aisle.
The double tier of galleries at the west end has been removed, and the
organ has been corbelled out on each side above the old mediaeval
tower arch, through which is seen the fifteenth- century west window.

The church has been entirely painted from: end to end in a quasi-
mediasval style, and the side windows' regldfedjn /tinted glass of the
same character. The altar has a marble rnensa: rfn solid supports, with
a wrought iron ornament in front, and above it are two marble
gradines or shelves. In design and arrangement this altar is similar to
that of St. Clement Danes, to which church this bears some resem¬
blance in the arrangement of ceiling and arches, and carved spandrels,
already alluded to, but it is much larger, and gives us a perfefi model
of what Wren considered necessary for a large parish church, spoilt
by the subsequent tasteless alterations to his handiwork, which are
simply deplorable. The services in this church were formerly very
frequent and numerous. There were prayers daily at six, eleven, and three, in the summer,
and seven, eleven, and three in the winter, contrasting, not very happily, with the present
arrangements for divine worship. The original organ was by Renatus Harris. Externally the
church is of stone, and retains the old tower heightened and cased with stone, and surmounted
by corner pinnacles, with an open parapet, which, although simple in design, is stately in effefi.
Much of the fine effed of the church has been curtailed by the Holborn Viadubt, yet it still
retains much dignity, contrasting strongly with a large but poor specimen of modern archi¬
tecture by its side, the two buildings reminding one of Landseers pibture, Dignity and
Impudence.”

CHRIST CHURCH NEWGATE STREET,

WITH ST. LEONARD FOSTER LANE.

This church, the tower and spire of
which is so conspicuous an object on the
left hand side of Newgate Street, is one
of Wren’s largest, but unfortunately not
one of his finest. It occupies the site of
the old Franciscan Friary Church, being
built on the choir of that stately and
magnificent edifice, which perished in
the Fire. The old church was usually
known as the Greyfriars, and was the
largest of the churches belonging to the
mendicant orders j being over three hundred feet in length. The other orders in London were
the Dominican or Blackfriars, the Carmelites or Whitefriars, the Augustinian or Austin
Friars, and the Crutched Friars. With the sole exception of the Austin Friars, and a small
portion of the crypt of Whitefriars, their churches have all disappeared, and of Austin
Friars only the nave remains ; but that alone will give a very fair idea of the appearance
of these huge structures, for as it now stands, it is longer than most of our cathedral churches.
Unlike the churches of the Benedictines, and canons regular of the order of St. Augustine,
which had the usual arrangement of arcade, triforium, and clerestory, with central and
western towers, these churches were essentially preaching churches, the arcades being light,
spacious, and lofty, while they possessed no triforium or clerestory. The roofs were of oak
with arched rafters and tie beams, and the internal areas were unencumbered with chapels, so
as to allow for vast congregations, attracted principally by the forcible and sometimes
coarse sermons preached within their walls. The friars were cordially disliked both by the
regular and secular clergy, as they diverted sources of income from both alike, and drew
people away from their own parish churches. The Franciscans began in a very humble
way in 1224, when four of them arrived in London and lodged with the Dominicans,
who also had only just arrived, and were then located in the buildings of the Old Temple
in Hoi born, just at the back of what is now the London and County Bank, a site which had
been abandoned by the Knights Templars for their new one south of Fleet Street. They
stayed with the Dominicans nineteen days, and then moved to Cornhill, where they were
lodged by John Trevers, citizen and sheriff, and subsequently removed to a void piece of
ground near Newgate, between the street and the city wall, given to them by John Ewins,
citizen, upon which site they soon ereCted their church and convent. The first part of the

I 2 1

choir was built in 1239 by William Joyner, Lord Mayor, and the body of the church
by Henry Walleis, but in less than a hundred years the whole church was rebuilt on a grander
scale, principally through Margaret of France, Queen of England; John de Bretagne, Earl of
Richmond; Mary, Countess of Pembroke; Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester ; Isabel de
France, Queen of England; and Philippa of Hainault, Queen of England, being finally
completed soon after 1327. Its length is recorded as 300 feet, “of Paul’s feet,” and the
style would have been flowing or late decorated, similar to the side walls of Austin Friars.
Greyfriars Church was 89 feet wide and 64 feet 2 inches high, this last dimension being
probably the internal height, and not to the apex of the gable. It is difficult to say if

IE MONASTERY OF THE GREYFRIARS.

the church had transepts, but the probability is that it did ; and, from the width and
spaciousness of the aisles that they did not project beyond them. There were fifteen windows
on each side, the names of the donors of each being recorded, also three windows at the
east and three at the west ends, and it is the fafl of there being only fifteen windows
enumerated that creates the doubt as to transepts, for if these were present they would
have large north and south windows, which would only give fourteen windows each side.
In the rough representation of the church preserved in the hospital adjoining (made in
1617), no transept is shown, but little reliance can be placed on what is only a con¬
ventional representation. The eighth window, the glazing of which was given by Robert
Benet, is described as being “under the belfry,” and the stalls are recorded as terminating
westward “sub lampide.” It was regarded as a privilege to be buried within the precinfls, and
accordingly we read of magnificent tombs, of which there must have been at least five, a ong

1 1

122

the choir; four queens — Margaret, Isabella, Joan of Scotland, and Isabel, Queen of the Isle of
Man, described as “ high tombs of alabaster with figures.” Sir Martin Bowes, Lord Mayor,

took all these tombs down and sold the materials and
a quantity of brasses for £ 50 ; the bodies probably
still rest in the centre of the present church.

The foregoing is but a brief description of what
must have been one of the most conspicuous and
largest churches in London. Immediately after the
surrender, when all its property passed to the King’s
use, the nave was used as a storehouse for prizes
taken from the French, but it was again used as a
church in 1546, when it was made parochial ; but here
again the avarice and greed of Henry were apparent,
for two other parish churches — St. Nicholas in the
Shambles, and St. Ewins — were pulled down that their
endowments might be taken to form the new parish. Its
subsequent history, showing how its buildings developed
in Christ’s Hospital, is too well known to need repeating
here. After the Fire, in which it was totally destroyed,
Wren built the present church on the choir only of
the ancient edifice, while the space where the nave
stood was left as a churchyard. He built his columns
and walls on the actual site of the older ones, and
the proportions which suited the former fabric so well
are not very happy in this ; the columns are without
arches, and support a continuous cornice, while the
intercolumniation being necessarily wide, gives a weak
appearance to the whole, which is increased by the
absence of a boldly moulded cornice (Plate XLV.).
The columns stand on unusually lofty square bases,
wainscoted in oak, and from the weak cornice spring
elliptical arches in plaster, soflited with square panels
or coffers, with a circular flower in each. Between
these arches the ceiling is plainly groined, with centre
circular flowers at the intersection, from which now
depend huge tubes with sun-burners ; an atrocious
arrangement for lighting, which no amount of utili¬
tarianism can excuse. There is a well developed
clerestory, from which the interior derives its principal
light, as the side windows are blocked by the galleries.
.... - , , , The uPPer windows have on each side a scroll orna-

ment filling the spandrel and the juxtaposition of this ornament with the groin of the plaster
ceiling, makes the latter look unusually plain. The ceilings over the aisles are flat, divided

GROUND-PLAN SHOWING WREN’S CHURCH
RELATIVE TO THE OLD FRIARY CHURCH.

I23

into square panels by trabiated cornices, similar to rh- „ •

Composite. The pulpit, which is richly carved with COTniCe’ ^ ^ USed being

and the twelve apostles in the central one and the fn„r a.rePresentation of our Lord

board has been removed, but is still preserved. Th r.eVange 1StS m tbe otllers J its sounding
south side of the church, from which the prayers are reaV* ^ ^e.COnc^ or companion pulpit on the
brought from some other church (tradition says the Temnle'T ^ haS evidently been

The chancel has been re-seated choir ways with onen 1’ ”!!!” blgber than tbe other-

and spacious one, filled with modern stained glass but the ^ ^ eaS*window is a krSe

surrounding architectural framework is pleasing in ’d ■ c°InPosl«on of the window and
so good, as St. Bride’s Fleet Street. The ^whilTf ^ ^ ™

and possesses a very handsome carved cover, and the organ Tkr eS1S"’ u ^ ^ “arble’

case. The church retains its old oak seating with 'I ’ °ne’ ^ a finelf carPed

seating, with a wide central passage occupied by « free

seats. The oak reredos, of the usual type, remains. The spacious galleries accommodate the
boys from the adjacent Christ’s Hospital. The interior of this large and spacious church
cannot be considered one of the happiest of Wren’s efforts, but externally it possesses a
beautiful tower (Plate XLIV.), which, although shorn of its upper range of vases, the loss
of which gives a pagoda-like appearance to it, is still a very fine one. It is much to be
regretted that these vases cannot be replaced, as they greatly helped the pyramidal effeS. It
is said that they had become dangerous, and were removed in consequence. The church
was not rebuilt until 1686-87, so that the parishioners had been without a church for
over twenty years, during which time provision for divine worship seems to have been
made by building a tabernacle among the ruins ; interment still went on in the pave¬
ment of the present church, which is the ancient one, dated during this period. Malcolm,
m 1803, speaks of the pavement being partly composed of coarse red marble from the former
church, and this still exists. The church possessed a very fine brass chandelier (a gift),
and there are still two very good ones. Judging from the indenture between Henry VIII.

124

and the Mayor and Commonalty of London, the ecclesiastical foundation for the new parish
was peculiar. “ There shall be in Christ Church one priest to declare, preach and teach the
word of God, who shall be called Vicar; and in the same, one other priest to be termed the
Visitor of Newgate, and five other priests to sing and celebrate divine service, and to adm, Ulster
sacraments;” and further, “that the Mayor and Commonalty shall have the appointment of
the Visitor of Newgate and the five other priests, and shall have the power to expel the same
persons, the Vicar excepted.” This patronage of the five other priests seems to have lapsed to
the Governors of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, who pay an annual sum to the vicar of £120 in
lieu of paying the five priests.

THE FONT WITH COVER.

ST. MARGARET PATTENS.

ST. GABRIEL FENCHURCH.

England that her day, July 20th, became a holy day in which no work was to be done. In
London and the neighbourhood there were four churches dedicated to her, and this one,
distinguished by the name of Pattens, was certainly in existence before the thirteenth century.
Newcourt in his “ Repertorium ” records the name of a redtor in 1324. The term Pattens
is supposed to be derived from the patten-makers dwelling hard by. The extreme antiquity
of the patten is indisputable, and they must have been made and sold somewhere in London.
This derivation, although commonplace, is intelligible, while that of St. Margaret of the Patens
is altogether unsatisfactory.

The present church was built in 1687, twenty-one years after the Fire. It has a wide
nave, with an aisle on the north side only, terminating in a tower at the north-west angle ;
there is a shallow recess for the altar at the east end, and galleries in the north aisle and at the
west end. The church is well lighted by a range of windows on the south side, between which
are pilasters supporting the coved cornice and ceiling. These windows have over them an
upper range of circular ones, and the cove is groined to allow space for them. The ceiling is
flat, with a boldly moulded enrichment, forming one large panel. The aisle is separated from

K K

I 2 6

the nave by three Corinthian columns on lofty bases, and these support a cornice, above which
the circular lights and groined cove are continued all round the church. The treatment of
the north gallery is peculiar, the ornamental front of it being carried round the circular columns.
Beneath the gallery two bays at the east end are now divided off by glazed partitions, forming
an inner vestry, leaving two bays clear, which are fitted up as a chapel, with an altar, and a
reredos which has evidently been formed from an inner door-case. The seats have been re¬
arranged and lowered, the old oak being worked up in them, and they have new bench ends
of a very solid and substantial description. The central aisle between the seats is unusually wide
and has wood-block paving. The chancel is now stalled, and the altar, evidently new (from
its size), is well elevated, and has a dossel hanging above it, concealing part of the old oak altar-
piece. Crucifixes now stand on this altar, and on the other in the side chapel. On the old
reredos there is some very beautiful wood-carving in wreaths and foliage, and it used to possess
an oil painting of the Agony in the Garden, attributed to Carlo Maratti, which now hangs in
the church with one or two other oil paintings of considerable merit. The pulpit has been
much altered and cut down, and is very plain ; the font is of white marble and prettily carved,
but of no particular merit, and its present cover is modern ; it does not seem ever to have pos¬
sessed one of those beautifully carved ones which are the glory of some of the City churches.

The organ gallery at the west end contains a small organ ; the front is well panelled, and
there is a very good carving of the royal arms. The gallery beneath is treated as a vestibule,
and in front of this, on each side, are the churchwardens’ seats, which have a kind of tester or
canopy over them in oak ; the fronts of these seats have some very delicately executed
pierced panels carved in oak. Much of this work, both here and on the reredos, has been
attributed to Gibbons, but, although perhaps more delicately carved than most in the churches,
it lacks his wonderful execution, and fidelity to nature. There are two sword rests, one rather
elaborate, the other perfectly plain ; both are very oddly placed now, being on the ground,
and resting against the churchwardens’ seats. The monuments are numerous, and some of the
tablets good. Amongst them were some to the Birch family, including Dr. Thomas Birch,
formerly retftor, who was secretary to, and wrote the history of, the Royal Society ; another to
John Birch, an eminent surgeon, with an inscription of inordinate length, of which the only

portion worth quoting is, “ The practice of Cow poxing . he uniformly and until death

perseveringly opposed.” Godwin and Britton, in “The Churches of London,” mention the
tradition of their arms, azure, three fleur-de-lis argent, being granted for seizing the royal
standard of France at Poidtiers, but it really was granted to the then “ Byrche ” for seizing the
royal bridle of John, King of France, and making him prisoner; he was afterwards appointed one
of the knights in attendance on the king at the Savoy Palace. The arms of Birch, or Byrche,
were originally sable a chevron between three mullets argent. On the south wall is a large
monument by Rysbrack of Sir Peter Delm£, Lord Mayor 1723.

Externally the church is not very striking, except for its beautiful tower and spire. (Plate
XLVI.) The composition is medieval, although the treatment is classic ; the building rises
nearly 200 feet from the ground, and the view of it looking down Rood Lane is very fine ; the
upper part, or spire, is lead, and there is a squareness and simplicity about it which is' very
pleasing.

The body of the church, which has been rendered over in cement, is built of red brick

12?

with stone dressings, with the exception of the west front Th

a very odd look to the church. Internallv all rt, ■ ’ , 6 numerous round windows give

and hideous glazing of the kdeido^T^STS ” f ^ T ****

very light and cheerful interior. The LensJs’ aTe £? Th TT * 1

32 feet. The alterations were made in 1880. § ’ ’ Wldth’ 52 feeti height,

The position of St. Gabriel Fenchurch is nor • ,

the middle of the street of that name, and Stow describes Tt\s TmalTT’ T' “ -tO0d “
unusual, and, until modern times, disused. It was burnt in , A e dedlcatlon was

being annexed to St. Margaret Pattens. a"d n0t rebullt> the Pa™h

SX. EDMUND THE KING AND MARTYR
LOMBARD STREET,

WITH ST. NICHOLAS ACONS.

St. Edmund, a very popular saint with our forefathers, was King of East
Anglia, a.d. 870, and being taken in battle by the Danes, was tied to
an oak and shot to death with arrows. His place of sepulture took the name
of St. Edmund’s Bury, where one of the most magnificent churches in
England was subsequently erected. This church, which is on the north side
of Lombard Street, is peculiar in its orientation, for it stands north and
south, instead of east and west, and is the only instance where Wren
departed from the usual custom of the Church in England. Hatton, in
noticing this peculiarity, says : cc I can meet with no good reason given for
this, but believe it done to save ground whereon to build houses fronting the
street, which here fetch very great rents.” That author would probably be
much astonished if he knew what those rents are now. Not very many
years ago even the small forecourt, only five feet deep from the railings, was occupied
by a gunsmith s shop on one side of the door, and an engine-house on the other. At some
period subsequent to Wren all the side windows were blocked and a skylight inserted in
the ceiling. The plan is oblong, without aisles, with a recess about 12 feet deep and 16 feet
8 inches wide, at the north end, for the altar, so that the true eastward position would
be impossible in this church. It has a flat ceiling with coved sides; has been re-seated
and otherwise altered from the original arrangement, and the old oak work has been very
beautifully worked up in the present chancel fittings, screen, and stalls. The tower, which
is at the south end of the church, proje&s well within the building, and only slightly so
externally, making a small break in the fa5ade. There were small galleries on each side
of the tower, and the organ, a small one, stood within it, but has now been moved to the
ground-floor at the north-west corner. The side walls are panelled in oak, but the cornice to

this panelling has the appearance of having been lowered, and the top panels seem to have
been considerably curtailed. The carving throughout is very rich and good, particularly that
on the oak reredos ; there is a tradition that the paintings of Moses and Aaron, on either
side of it, were done by Etty in 1833, but in Malcolm’s
description of the church (about 1807) he refers to these paint¬
ings as tolerable.” Hatton also mentions them in 1708, but it
is quite possible that Etty might have retouched or repainted
them later. The pulpit with its handsome sounding board of
cherubim, festoons, etc., was originally on the east side, but is now
placed on the west. The font (page 129) has a very finely carved
oak cover, but is unfortunately mutilated ; it formerly possessed
small standing figures of the twelve Apostles, of which only four
are now left, but a reference to the illustration shows the spaces
where the others stood, and, if still in existence, it is strange that
they have not been restored to their proper place. The only
front of this church which can be seen is the south end, in
Lombard Street, and this is a very pleasing composition, with a
central tower surmounted by a lead-covered spire, of unusually
quaint design. This front has three round-headed windows,
each surmounted by a cornice carried on trusses, while the main
cornice is broken by a pediment on the front of the tower.

Beneath the central window is the only entrance, flanked
on each side by square-headed low windows, which
rather spoil what would otherwise be a very good compo¬
sition. Curved buttresses occur on each side of the tower,
terminating on the parapet against two well-designed
vases. The lead spire is odtagonal in plan, with belfry
lights, and is decorated with little urns and vases, which
break the line of the inverted curved sides of the cone.
It terminates in a boldly moulded cornice, surmounted
by a vane. Referring to the mutilated top panels of
the wainscoting, Hatton says, “ here are also certain
pertinent texts of Scripture painted on carved boards,
and placed round the church about the space of eight
foot from each other.” The disappearance of these
south front to street. “ pertinent texts ” may perhaps account for the un¬

finished appearance of the panelling. There is a
monument, of statuary marble (representing Hope reclining on an urn), to the memory of
Jeremiah Milles, Dean of Exeter and re&or of the united parishes, President of the Society
of Antiquaries in 1784; and the love of antiquity which distinguished him, seems to have
descended, like Elijah’s mantle, to the present re<ftor, a Fellow of the same Society, who, under
the name of “ Peter Lombard,” carries on the sacred lamp, and charms and interests his
readers week by week in his Cf Varia.”

129

St. Nicholas Aeons, which stood in St. Nicholas r „„„ , ..

Fire. Its surname of Aeons is difficult to account for. St™™ «

I read it m recordes ; while some have derived it from
“ a quoin," at the corner, which is not likely, for there
was an ancient church in London which derived its name
from that, and was called St. Michael-le-Querne ; more
probably it was derived from the name of the person who
founded or rebuilt it. The patronage of both St. Edmund
and St. Nicholas belonged originally to great religious
houses ; St. Edmund to the Priory of the Holy Trinity

THE FONT COVER.

SWORD REST.

Aldgate, and St. Nicholas to Malmesbury Abbey. At the dissolution the patronage of the first
was vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury, and St. Nicholas Aeons in the king. The church
of St. Edmund was finished in 1690 ; it is 69 feet long, 39 feet wide, and 32 feet high. In
1708 there was daily service at 1 1 and 7.

L L

ST. MARGARET LOTHBURY.

Some idea of the crowded state of London within the walls, is
afforded by the fad of this church having been partly built over
the course of the old Wall brook, that stream being vaulted over
to allow of its extension in 1440, when it
was considerably enlarged and almost re¬
built, by Robert Large, Lord Mayor of
London, 1439. There seems to be no
earlier mention of it than 13 S3, although
it had then probably existed for several centuries. The advowson
belonged to the Abbess and Convent of Barking, the first abbess being
St. Ethelburgha, sister of St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London ; the
Benedidine abbey of nuns at Barking was rich and powerful from very
early times, and possessed several livings.

The old church was destroyed in 1666, but the present building
was not completed until 1690. The plan in some respeds very much
resembles St. Margaret Pattens. In both buildings we have the same
broad nave, with an aisle on one side only, and a tower placed at the
west end of the aisle. In St. Margaret Lothbury we have the aisle
with the tower on the south side, while in St. Margaret Pattens this is
reversed. But the resemblance does not stop here; we find the same
colonnade and coved ceiling, forming half groins over the range of circular
upper windows continued round the church, and the same flat ceiling,
an arrangement which is again observable at St. Vedast Foster. It may
be that at this period Wren’s extensive works at Hampton Court Palace
tempted him to repeat himself in these churches, under a pressure
which prevented his giving us such varied and graceful conceptions as
St. Antholin, St. Benet Fink, St. Swithin, and St. Mary Abchurch, but
one must look a little further than mere plan and arrangement. His
plans were in most cases the results of having to deal with varying sites,
and to build on irregular ones, and more important still, having to
incorporate in them the old walls and foundations of previous buildings,
and this similarity, apparent in general form, almost disappears when we
examine them in detail. St. Margaret Lothbury is 36 feet high, and the aisle is separated by
two columns and two pilasters, while St. Margaret Pattens is 32 feet high, and has three
columns and two pilasters, and further than this, the altar is placed in a shallow recess, which
is altogether absent from the first-mentioned church. The gallery in the aisle was present in

both, but it has now been removed in the Lothbury example. It will be unnecessary to
further descnbe the plan, but as so many important alterations have been made ,n aI

interior, a detailed description of
these is necessary. The south aisle
has been railed off by a screen ex¬
tending between the columns, and
forming a chapel, in which there is
a second altar, raised on marble steps.
The oak altar-piece, with the usual
Decalogue, etc., has not been much
altered, but the upper part has lost
its pediment and coat-of-arms, al¬
though the four “lamps” remain.
The altar has been raised, and is
railed off by an oak baluster. The
chancel has been arranged for a
choir, and a marble pavement has
been laid down in it. At the en¬
trance is now placed the magnificent
high screen from All Hallows the
Great, little or no alteration being
necessary to fit it to its new position.
It has been entirely cleared of the
various coats of varnish with which
it was covered, and now stands as.
good as when James Jacobsen gave
it to All Hallows. The
carving and mouldings
are particularly sharp
and clear. The beauty
of this screen is rather
spoilt by the ugly
eagle, looking like a
barn-door bat, which
stretches across the
central opening, but
this has been again set
up, while the ugly iron
struts, which disfigured
it in Thames Street,

PULPIT NOW AT ST. MARGARET’S, FORMERLY BELONGING TO ALL HALLOWS THE GREAT

Lave happily disappeared. Another relic preserved here, is the carved oak pulpit and sounding
oard from the same church, now placed against the north wall, in close proximity to that
donging properly to St. Margaret’s. The latter has, however, lost its sounding board, which

i .3 a

was removed some years back, and, if report says true, was “ converted into a table. The
oak leftern has been made up out of some very beautiful pieces of carving from various places.

INTERIOR VIEW, SHOWING SCREEN FROM ALL HALLOWS.

This church has become a museum of flotsam and jetsam from others which have been destroyed,
and the patron saint, Margaret, is now surrounded by a bevy of attendant saints, from churches

133

destroyed or removed ; these include St. Bartholomew Sr PI,,' , i „ , ,

Mary, St. Olave and St. Martin, and if every p rTsW t ^ St’

' ■ , , , r , , , / B"1511 were to appoint two churchwardens a

congregation could be formed of wardens alone. The font is a very fine one of statuary

marble on polished marble base, and marble inlaid pavement; it has four panels in low relief
and looks very much like the handiwork of Gibbons. The subjeds of the panels are Adam
and Eve m Paradise, the Ark and the Dove, the Baptism of Christ in Jordan, and St Philip
baptizing the Ethiopian eunuch ; these subjeds being divided by very pretty cherubs’ heads
between outstretched wings. The cover unfortunately is not in its original state, which
Hatton thus describes : the type or CQVer k ^ ^ ^

figures or St. Margaret and Faith
them the figures of Hope and
those of a choir of angels con-
is a glory in the semblance of a
the “ coronet of angels,” but no
placed in the space beneath the
coronet; the finial is carved into
The last bay of the south
there is another vestry at the west
alley at the west end of the church
receptacle for a quantity of oak
destroyed churches, and for the
The alley evidently led to the
church, which is now nearly all
been lowered and the old material
passages are paved with marble,
two flat painted wooden images
Christoph er-le-
a scheme on foot
colour the walls
church, which are
except where

WHITE MARBLE FONT AND COVER.

round the lower part, and above
Charity ; and above these are
stituting a coronet, and above all
dove.” The present cover has
figures, and the dove is now
arched trusses which support the
the shape of a lamp,
aisle is occupied by a vestry, and
end on the north side. A long
is now roofed over and forms a
wainscoting and carving from
clock and bells from St. Olave’s.
churchyard at the back of the
built over. The high pews have
worked up. The aisles and
In the niches, on each side, are
of Moses and Aaron, from St.

Stocks. There is
to decorate in
and roof of the
now quite plain,
covered by innu¬

merable tablets, either belonging to the church or brought from elsewhere, but which are
anything but decorative ; there is also a design for filling the space above the reredos with a
painted or mosaic representation of the Ascension. Externally the only front to be seen is the
south, which is of Portland stone, with a very plain square stone tower, with round-headed
belfry windows, and cornice. The tower (page 130) is terminated by a leaden spire, rather
quaint in outline. The principal entrance is in this tower.

The windows have been re-glazed with ornamental coloured glass, not particularly
beautiful. The west gallery, containing the organ, has been left, and is supported by columns,,
the two ends projecting in advance of the central portion. Old views show this church with
a range of low shops in front. The cc golden leCture ” was delivered here and paid for by
golden guineas, the same coins doing duty over and over again, the lecturer receiving an
equivalent in current coin of the realm.

M M

ST. ANDREW WARDROBE,

ST. ANNE BLACKFRIARS.

This church, which is rather a large one, was rebuilt after
the Fire, but not finished till 1692, when the neighbouring
church and parish of St. Anne was united to it. The
building is now a most conspicuous objedt in Queen
Vi&oria Street, standing well above the pavement, and is
approached by a flight of steps, to the south door. The
distinguishing name of Wardrobe is derived from its con¬
tiguity to the Wardrobe Tower, a strong house or mansion,
originally built by Sir John Beauchamp, a son of Guy, Earl
of Warwick, who died in 1359, when his executors sold the house to Edward III., by whom
it was converted, oddly enough, to the purposes of a storehouse for the royal robes and those
of the Knights of the Garter. Among the Harleian MSS. are the accounts of one of the
keepers (Piers Courteys), from which it would seem that it was also used both as a storehouse
and for making the robes. This was in the reign of Edward IV., and it appears that
bookbinding also was carried on here, for several sums are entered for binding of the King’s
books, amongst them a “ Titus Livius,” “ Froissard,” The Bible, “ The Fortress of Faith,” and
a ct Josephus.” There is very little doubt that the ct Josephus ” there mentioned was the
identical magnificently illuminated copy now preserved in the Soane Museum ; it is of that
date, and has the royal arms on several of the exquisite borders.

This church comprises a nave and aisles, with a tower at the south-west corner ; the
aisles are groined, and the roof of the nave arched. Alluding to its dedication, an old writer
says : “ As it was dedicated to one of the twelve Apostles, who were the builders of the
Christian Church, so this is supported by twelve pillars of the Tuscan order.” These piers
(for they are not pillars) are square, and the whole arrangement is unusual ; they support the
roof, but the ceilings are groined down on to them, so that the arches follow the curve of the
main roof, an effect which is peculiar, but good ; each spandrel between the piers is filled by a
cherub’s head and wings. The east window, which is large, has a semi-circular head; the
piers are all cased in wood (said to be deal), and the roof is divided up into panels, forming
circles surrounded by squares, the sides of which make semi-circles concentric with the centre
circles, and the half-circles over the compartments, between the piers, are filled with palm
branches. The whole of the plaster-work is deserving of study, but the woodwork is not
quite so rich as some in other churches. A gallery runs round three sides. The sounding
board of the pulpit is now fixed on the ceiling of the vestry. Originally there was no organ.

Plate XLVII.

ALLHALLOWS, LOMBARD STREET

THE ALTAR AND PULPIT.

r3S

Externally he butldtng xs of red bnck and stone, and the formation of Queen Viftoria
Street has brought .Unto a prommence not origmally contemplated. The tower, finished at
the top with a plain balustrade xs not very good, but the south doorway is stately Ind refined

Pr°6Co° x6r ’ WaS en CaUed St- Andrew juXta Castk W-d, was

St. Anne’s church stood in the precxnd of the Dominican or Blackfriars, close by
and was burnt tn the Great Fire. It had very narrowly escaped destruflion when the
monastery was swept away, and was only saved by the strenuous efforts of the parishioners

ALL HALLOWS LOMBARD STREET.

This church, which is situate towards the east end of
Lombard Street, on the north side, is so completely
hidden from view by neighbouring houses that it would
be very difficult to find were it not for a small archway,
closed by a cast-iron gate which leads to it, many would
pass without being aware of its proximity.

The foundation of the church is of remote antiquity,
although the first mention of it is that, in 1053, one Brihtmerus, a citizen, gave the
advowson to the priory attached to the cathedral church of Canterbury, and it has remained in
the possession of the Dean and Chapter ever since. It was originally called All Hallows
Grassechurch. The gate (now very rarely to be found open) leads into a covered passage
running beneath the houses in Lombard Street to the south door, under the tower, which is
the usual entrance to the church. The interior strikes one as rather large in comparison with
many others. The plan is simply a square, with a flat plaster ceiling and coved sides all
round, and a shallow recess at the east end, containing the altar. The church has a range of
lofty windows on each side, over which the cove is groined. The tower breaks into the plan
at the south-west corner, and the space to the north of this is occupied by a vestibule and
stairs to the gallery. In the centre of the gallery rises a column, introduced to continue
the regular spacing of the cove (with its half groinings), and to balance a like division at the
east end. There is a striking similarity in this plan to that of the church of St. Michael
College Hill, the only difference being in the dimensions, the half groin to the cove, and
the shallow recess for the altar, features which are absent from St. Michael’s. In the centre
of the ceiling, forming an oblong panel, is a modern skylight, which was inserted about
1880. This panel has a deeply moulded and enriched cornice round it, and the cove itself
springs from well-designed corbels representing cherubs’ heads, supporting a volute. The
chief glory of this church is the quantity of extremely beautiful and richly carved wood-work
which it contains. (Plate XLVII.) Although the internal arrangements have recently been
much altered from what they were in Wren’s time, the restorers have been conservative
enough to retain all this fine carving. The reredos, the pulpit, and two internal door-cases at

1 36

the west end, are all superb specimens of seventeenth century art. The two Tables of the Law
have been removed from the central panels of the reredos, and their places taken by two
paintings, “ Ecce Homo,” and tc Christ bearing His Cross, while the Creed and the Lord s
Prayer have, in like manner, given place to painted scrolls with inscriptions. The upper part
of the altar-piece has a circular panel with the Agnus Dei, and on the upper part of the
pediment are placed the seven candlesticks, with pointed tapers. Between the panels which
contained the Decalogue is a £C Pelican in her piety, and the whole composition is covered with
the most beautiful carvings of wreath and foliated work, cartouches, and shields. The
altar rail is modern, and the altar, the front of which is left uncovered, bears the usual cross,
candlesticks, and vases. The pulpit is a very fine specimen of carved work, and retains its rich
sounding board and staircase. The chancel has been stalled for a choir, and the modern seats
are in good taste, but it is to be regretted that, except in the san&uary, tiles have replaced the
black and white marble paving. The organ has been removed from the west end, and with its
richly gilded case now stands at the south-east corner. The font is of marble, well carved,
and has a finely carved oak cover. The church is wainscoted nine feet high on the side walls.
The door-cases at the west end differ in many particulars from others. A partly drawn
curtain, carved in oak, conceals a portion of the carving, and the doors are surmounted by
carved figures of Death and Time. There are two sword-rests fixed to the Corporation pew,
on the south-east side of the church. The windows are all filled with stained glass, and
the substitution of this for the ordinary clear glass probably led to the insertion of the ugly
skylight, in order to lessen the increased darkness. The old brass branches now do duty for gas.
Externally, so far as can be seen, the archite&ure is rather poor ; the tower, like the body of
the church, is of stone, very simple in design, and it now contains a full peal of bells,
which was brought here when St. Dionis was destroyed. The church, which was completed
in 1694, is 84 feet long, 52 feet wide, and about 30 feet high; the cost was ^8,058. The
neighbouring parishes, whose churches have been destroyed, have now been annexed to this.
They were St. Dionis Backchurch and St. Benet Gracechurch, with St. Leonard East Cheap.

ST. MICHAEL PATERNOSTER,

WITH ST. MARTIN VINTRY.

church in the Royall.” This

The parish church of St. Michael stands on College
Hill, immediately adjacent to the famous college
founded by Sir Richard Whittington, and is often
termed St. Michael College Hill. It is also frequently
called “ Royal ’ from its close proximity to cc Tower
Royal, which adjoined the college. Stow calls it “ the
fair parish church of St. Michael called Paternoster
Tower Royall was evidently a strong building and capable of

I37

defence, for when the rebels under Wat Tyler took possession of the Tower of London Joan
Dowager Princess of Wales, took refuge there, until her son Richard II., after dispersing the’
rabble, was able to release her. It was called Tower Royal in the reign of Edward I. and little is
known of it before that re,gn. Another derivation of the name is merely a corruption of “ la
Riole,” a place near Bordeaux, and as this was in Vintry Ward the supposition is that the street
being principally inhabited by vintners, and Bordeaux wines being largely imported, the name
of the French town was adopted for the locality ; Stow’s mention of “ Paternoster church in
the Royall ” does give a little colour to this last derivation, but Tower Royal is certainly the
most simple and acceptable derivation. Subsequently this dwelling was called the Queen’s
Wardrobe, but it must not be confounded with the Wardrobe Tower in St. Andrew’s parish.
St. Michael’s is first mentioned in 1283, but had probably been in existence long before that
date. One of the greatest names on London s roll of fame is inseparably connected with it,
i.e.3 Sir Richard, alias “ Dick” Whittington, four
times (not “thrice” only) Lord Mayor of London,

1396, 1397, 1406 and 1419. When he founded
his adjacent college and almshouses he rebuilt the
church and made it collegiate, and gave the
advowson to the Mercers’ Company. At the sup¬
pression it reverted to the Dean and Chapter of
Canterbury, and is now one of the “ peculiars ”
attached to the see, and exempt from the juris¬
diction of the Bishop of London.

It was not rebuilt, under Wren’s direction,
until 1694, and the tower was not completed
until 1713. (Plate XL VI II.) Although not a
very beautiful architectural work the interior is
pleasing, and is on the same model as All

Hallows Lombard Street, but has not the shallow chancel of the latter. It has been

considerably altered and re-arranged, and upon the whole not unsatisfactorily. The wood¬
work is very rich, and the reredos has some fine carving attributed to Grinling Gibbons.
Over the centre of this was placed Hilton’s picture of St. Mary Magdalen and our Lord,
in the house of Simon the Pharisee, but as it was very imperfectly seen it has now been

removed to the north wall, and all the windows at the east end, which were formerly

blocked, have been opened out and filled with stained glass. The side windows have also
been similarly treated, and the two westernmost, on the south side, now contain memorial
glass to Sir Richard Whittington, the only memorial in the present church ; his monument
having been destroyed when the old church was built in 1666. The pulpit and sounding
board remain and are good, but not particularly rich. The old font has disappeared and
has been replaced by a new large marble one in memory of Alderman and Sheriff Conder,
who died in 1865. There is some very good iron-work in the way of sword and hat rests,
especially the latter. These wrought-iron hat stands were not uncommon although not so
general as the sword-rest. They are found at St. James Garlickhythe, St. Andiew by the
Wardrobe, St. Olave Hart Street, All Hallows Lombard Street, St. Andrew Holborn, and at

HAT STAND.

N N

*38

this church of St. Michael, which contains decidedly the best example. They certainly
afforded a much more convenient way of disposing of the headgear than stowing it away under
the seat, where it invariably gets dusty and probably damaged. There is to be met with a
curious view of the interior of St. Margaret’s Westminster, during service time, and when
attended by both Houses. The Lords sit below, and the Commons in the galleries, and the
fronts of these are decorated with cocked hats, hanging evidently on pegs fixed for that
purpose. The organ has been removed from the west gallery, and now stands at the other
end. The chancel has been re-arranged for a choir, and the remainder of the seats have been
lowered ; there is a quantity of good panel-work, which has all been retained and re-used,
and in the whole of the work the old material has been re-worked. Notwithstanding these
alterations the interior looks cheerful and comfortable, the only exception being the west
gallery, which is bare without the organ ; the new font is not in keeping with the style of the
church.

It is curious that even the glamour of Whittington’s name was insufficient to preserve his
tomb from spoliation, for a certain Thomas Mountain, who held the recflory at the time the
college was dissolved, moved by avarice and hope of gain, opened the monument, injuring it
considerably, and finding the body, which was wrapped in lead, he stripped this off and sold
it. The famous Lord Mayor had again to be buried, not all his good deeds and charitable
bequests serving to preserve his body from insult in that sacrilegious age.

Externally this church is not very handsome, but the tower and stone turret are good,
and there is a very picturesque view from the south-east, taking in the fine doorway to
Innholders’ Hall. The tower is in three divisions, and has an open parapet above the
bold cornice, supported by trusses. At each angle of the parapet is a square vase, and from
the centre rises a very beautiful stone lantern or turret, with a general resemblance to St. James
Garlickhythe and St. Stephen Walbrook, although differing from both. Perhaps its only
fault is that it is a little overladen with vases.

St. Martin Vintry, now represented only by a churchyard with a few trees, stood at the
corner of Queen Street and Thames Street. It was not rebuilt after the Fire, and the parish
was annexed to St. Michael. Since the wanton destruction of All Hallows the Great, its
parish and that of All Hallows the Less have been amalgamated with that of St. Michael.

It was at first intended to take the screen from All Hallows Thames Street, and set it up
in this church, but as it did not fit, it was fortunately taken to St. Margaret Lothbury, where
it could be re-ere&ed without alteration, together with the pulpit.

ST. VEDAST FOSTER,

WITH ST. MICHAEL-LE-QUERNE.

C- Although Vedast and Foster appear as separate names, one
rjl is really a corruption of the other, and Stow calls this church
I y tC^' Fost:ers> To ascertain why this is the case one must turn
to the name of Vedast, which in Latin would be Vedastus,

-fi - ^ — iJ pronouncing the a long. On the continent Vedastus becomes

f Va-astus, and the transition from Vaastus to “Fosters’’ is

^ J intelligible enough. St. Vedast was one of those early saints

who in the north of Gaul preached Christianity to its warlike
inhabitants, and he baptized Clovis, the King of the Franks. Throughout France, where there
are many churches dedicated to him, he is known as St. Vaast, but the V becomes a W in
Western Flanders, and the name becomes St. Waast. He was bishop both of Cambray and
Arras, and ruled this double diocese for forty years, dying about a.d. 540. He was buried at
Arras, and his relics are still preserved in the cathedral there. Although wonderfully popular
abroad, where miracle plays were aded in his honour, the reason is not apparent why a church
should be dedicated to him in London, unless it be on account of the close connexion between
the ancient Gallican church and the church existing here before the advent of St. Augustine.
There is but one other church in England dedicated to him, namely — Tathwell in Lincoln¬
shire, but another which formerly existed at Norwich was destroyed in 1564. The learned
sub-dean and librarian of St. Paul’s Cathedral, Dr. Sparrow Simpson, has collected and pub¬
lished a volume entitled. “Carmina Vedastina. Tragico Comcedia de Sando Vedasto, and the
“ Life and Legend of St. Vedast,” and has given as a frontispiece to the “ Tragico Comcedia
a representation of St. Vedast from some stained glass at Blythborough Church, Norfolk, and
beneath it are the letters “ S. FOS,” the remainder being lost, with the exception of a portion
of the “ T,” but this is sufficient to identify St. Vedast with St. Fosters, and to account for
both Stow’s use of the word, and for the lane in which the church is situated being known as
Foster or Fosters Lane.

Although the church is not a particularly good example of Wren’s architedure it possesses
a fine steeple, and the view from Newgate Street, embracing the three spires ol Christ Church,
St. Vedast, and Bow Church, is rendered pifluresque on account of the contrast of these spires
one with another. The two last are shown on Plate XLIX. The plan is similar to those ot
St. Margaret Lothbury, and St. Margaret Pattens, a nave with one aisle, on the south in this

I4I

case, and a tower at the south-east corner. The site being a little irregular, the walls are not
at right angles to one another, and the south aisle is broader at the east end than at the west
but the organ, transferred to the east end of the aisle, conceals this irregularity. On entering
the west door the church presents an appearance of height beyond its afiual measurement
which is only thirty-six feet from the floor to the ceiling, but the clerestory lights on the
south side, continued on the north, over the lower windows, contribute to this effedf With
the exception of those at the west end all the windows are filled with stained glass, which is
probably the best in the City, and in its modern re-arrangement there is not apparent the
havoc and destruflion of the fittings which is noticeable in so many other restored churches.

The altar-piece, which is very good, both for detail and ornament (the latter erroneously
attributed to Gibbons), has been slightly gilt in parts, but is not otherwise injured. The altar
is finely carved and supported by four angels. The chancel has been seated for a full choir,
and much of the old woodwork has been used up for these seats. The fine pulpit and
sounding board are now placed on the south side. Hatton describes the latter as being
decorated with “ the figures of the seven golden candlesticks with wax tapers, and as many
stars of eight rays.”

Although the plan is similar to others previously described, the similarity ends in the
internal arrangement, for where in the other churches one finds columns supporting a straight
architrave, at St. Vedast the Tuscan columns support four arches, the key-stones of which
are carved with cherubs’ heads. In Godwin and Britton’s work St. Vedast is mentioned as
possessing at the east end two transparent “ blinds ” over the windows on each side of the altar,
painted, the one with the Transfiguration, and the other with the delivery of St. Peter from
prison, and the notice goes on to say “that painted blinds might, we think, be employed with
advantage more often than they are in the absence of stained glass.” With this sentiment
one would heartily concur if only some of the modern stained glass could be covered up with
painted blinds, or anything else, although from the excellence of the glass there would be no
occasion to apply such a remedy at St. Vedast’s.

The plaster ceiling, which has a coved cornice round, is enriched centrally with small
panels of foliage contained within one large outer panel formed by bands of ornament, fruits,
and flowers. The royal arms still occupy their original position on the north wall. The font,
which is rather plain, is now at the south-west corner. The west window is a mullioned one
of three lights with a transom, and as the old church had been entirely rebuilt in 1600, may
be a reminiscence of a former one of that pattern, since it is quite different to those usually
found in Wren’s churches. After the Fire much of the old walls and the lower part of the
tower remained, but the present church, which was built on the old walls, was not completed
until 1698. The tower and spire, which is very fine and exceedingly simple, is in four stages
above the roof of the church. The first is the belfry stage, with four windows, having
segmental arched heads, and a bold blocking cornice above them ; then the first stage of the
spire, likewise pierced with four windows, and with small oval openings below, while a group
of Corinthian pilasters, set diagonally at each corner, support a second cornice. Above this,
diminishing in size, and of about half the height of the lower, comes another stage, which also
has square openings, but the angle pilasters are perfedly plain, as is also the cornice which
they support. Above this, and placed on two steps, rises a panelled obelisk, with the frustrum

o 0

1 42

surmounted by a ball and vane. The angles of the obelisk have carved trusses placed
diagonally, which help the pyramidal effedb of the whole.

The church is only 69 feet long by 51 feet wide, including the aisle, so that it is not
large, yet it has a spacious look in the interior.

St. Michael-le-Querne stood at the angle of Paternoster Row and St. Paul’s Churchyard.
There is an ancient representation of this church, and the conduit at the east end of it, which
makes one wish that the artist had devoted a little more care to the detail of the church and
a little less to the “ black jacks ” standing ready to be filled, which are accurately drawn.
Judging from this old view the church of St. Michael was a plain building without aisles, but
no dependence can be placed upon it as an authentic view. The term “ le Querne ” has been
freely translated as “ at the Corn,” because of a corn-market that once stood there, but cc au
Coigne,” or at the Corner, seems a more common-sense view of the derivation, although its
Latin name “ ad Bladum ” does give some sort of authority for the corn. It was never rebuilt
after the Fire, and the parish was annexed to St. Vedast’s. Since the demolition of St.
Matthew Friday with St. Peter Cheap those parishes have also been added to St. Vedast.

ST. MARY SOMERSET THAMES STREET,

WITH ST. MARY MOUNTHAW.

The tower of this church still stands, although the church
has been destroyed about twenty years. It forms quite a
landmark in Thames Street, towards the western end, and
is very noticeable from its design, which is more curious
than beautiful, for above the parapet there is a collection
of obelisks and vases more suggestive of a cemetery
than anything else. When the church was destroyed
the tower was saved at the suggestion of the late Mr.
Ewan Christian, but as unfortunately no funds out of the proceeds of the sale of the site
and materials of the church itself were set apart for its repair, it became the abode of innu¬
merable pigeons. Of late years the interior has been cleansed and
the roof releaded, the old lead having been stolen in broad daylight
under the very eyes of the police, who thought, perhaps not unnaturally,
that the thieves were ordinary workmen employed in repairing it. The
Corporation are now the owners. The church itself, was not very
beautiful ; it was a plain parallelogram in plan, with two
columns at the west end supporting a gallery, and
was lighted by five round-headed windows on the
south side, and a like number on the north, but
the two westernmost of the latter were blocked.
There was one window at the east and two at the
west end. The tower was placed against the south
wall at the west end. The interior was exceedingly
plain, with a flat ceiling and coved sides. There
had been a painted blind over the east window,
which was removed some years before the de¬
struction, but originally the Stuart arms were placed
in it. Of the same date as the painted blind
were some clumsily-executed paintings of drapery
on each side of this window, with Moses and Aaron on either side. The font and cover,
the pulpit, which was placed against the south wall, and the reredos, were nicely caived.
There was a small vestry beyond the east wall, and a churchyard round the church on

i44

three sides. The portion to the south has been thrown into Thames Street, while that
to the east and north now forms the redfory garden of the united parishes, for this parish
has been annexed to St. Nicholas Cole Abbey. The re&ory has been rebuilt on the old site,
and in digging the foundations a Roman wall of great thickness was discovered running south.
Huge warehouses, much loftier than the church, now occupy its site, and considering how
tenacious City people are about rights of light, it is a wonder that these were ever allowed to
be carried so high. The term Somerset is a corruption from Summers Hythe. Before the
Great Fire St. Mary Mounthaw stood a little td the north of this church ; it was called in old
documents ££ Ecclesia Sandt® Marite de Monte alto,” and was first a private chapel attached to a
big house belonging to a family of that name. This house afterwards became the palace or inn
belonging to the Bishops of Hereford, where they resided while attending Parliament, and the
chapel became parochial. It was never rebuilt after the Fire, and was annexed to St. Mary
Somerset. One of the Bishops of Hereford, John Skip (1539), was buried in St. Mary
Mounthaw, and another, the famous Gilbert Ironside, Bishop of Bristol, and translated to
Hereford, was buried in St. Mary Somerset in 1701. The body has been removed and re¬
interred at Hereford Cathedral, while the carved stone ledger was removed to St. Nicholas Cole
Abbey. This is of black marble, with the following inscription :

“ H . S . E

t£ Reverendus admodum in Christo Pater Gilbertus Ironside S . T . P Col. Wadhamensis in
Acad. Oxon. Guardianus ejusdem Acad. Vice. canc. primus consecratus Bristol Episcop
postea translatus ad Episcopas Hereford

££ Obiit 27 August 1701
££ fEtas su® 69.”

Arms, three leopards’ heads reversed, each jessant a flower-de-lis impaled with his paternal
coat — a cross, croslet fltchie. It is placed on the chancel floor of St. Nicholas.

The dimensions of this church were — length 83 feet, width 36 feet, and height 30 feet.
It was not finished until 1695. From the proceeds of the sale of the site, etc., St. Mary Hoxton
has been built and endowed, and many of the internal fittings have been placed there.

ST. CHRISTOPHER-LE-STOCKS.

In old views of the Bank of England, before it was altered by Sir
Robert Taylor, this church, with its lofty tower and four corner
pinnacles, forms a prominent objedt. It stood a little to the west
of the main entrance to the Bank in Threadneedle Street. The

history of its demolition is curious ; the Bank first devoured the

parish little by little, and then swallowed the church, as a useless
incumbrance, on account of it having no parish. The main part of
the churchyard however, is preserved, and forms that delightful
green inclosure called the Bank Garden. There does not seem to
be a plan of the church preserved anywhere, but fortunately, there is in the Gardner colledtion
of old prints and drawings of London, a drawing giving the outside dimensions of the church
in connection with a plan of the house of Sir John Houblons (the first Governor of the Bank),
which adjoined it on the east side. Aided by this and various engravings of the exterior, the
plan at the head of this article has been evolved, and while it does not lay claim to exactness,
it cannot be very far wrong. As can be seen it is distinctly medieval, and although the

church was greatly “ damnified,” it was not entirely destroyed by the Great Fire, but was

patched up almost direCtly afterwards, and made to do duty until it was finally taken in hand
by Wren in 1696, and altered to the form made familiar to us by old prints. Hatton’s
description of the interior is the only one known, and he tells us, “ all the old part which
the Fire left is of the Gothic order, but the pillars within, etc., are of the Tuscan, and the walls
are built of old stone and brick finished or rendered over, and the floor of the Chancel is
three steps above that of the church. ... The roof is lined with timber divided into eight
quadrangles, which appear very pretty, and on the key stone of each arch is carved a seraph.”
He further speaks of its wainscoting, pulpit and sounding board, altar-piece, etc., as resembling
many others, and gives the dimensions as length 60 feet, width 52 feet, and height 40 feet.
Several of the old monuments were uninjured by the Fire, one at the north-east corner of
the chancel, “ a busto cast in brass, in armour, under which is a skeleton’s head and these
words : Petrus Le Maire, Eques Auratus Londinensis iEtat suas 38. 1631.’ There was also a
gravestone to Henry Bainbrigg, citizen and cloth-worker (1665), which was removed to
St. Margaret Lothbury, where it is still preserved.

It was in the year 1781, that the Bank obtained the adt for the demolition, the reasons
given being that they wanted more room, and further that perceiving in the Gordon Riots
of 1780, the church of St. Christopher was a dangerous fortress for such persons in case of
an attack upon the Bank, it would be safer to remove it.

ST. DUNSTAN IN THE EAST.

Of this church only the lofty and beautiful spire, which is so conspicuous an object from
London Bridge, is Wren’s work, for his church, or rather the one restored by him after the Great
Fire, has given place to an entirely new building, of which the foundation stone was laid on the
26th of November, 1817; and considering the time in which it was built, it
is by no means a bad specimen. The detail may not be altogether good, but the
internal effect is fine. St. Dunstan, the famous Archbishop of Canterbury, to
whom it is dedicated, was a monk, and his canonization was due entirely to
the influence of the monks, of whom he was the warm advocate and defender
at the expense of the secular clergy. Personally he was a turbulent and
ambitious man, to whom king and country were of secondary importance when
his beloved “ fetish ” of monasticism stood in the way. Even the monkish
legends themselves are records of his fiendish cruelty to the wife of Edwy.
His name, however, survives in several rhymes, and he occupies much the
same position in our country as the equally famous St. Eloi in France.
“ St. Dunstan as the story goes ” and “ St. Dunstan’s harp fast by the wall ”
perhaps will survive, although the real St. Dunstan of history may be forgot.
His skill in several of the arts, especially in that of metal work, may not be an
idle legend, for the monasteries at that period often contained men proficient
in these callings. He was the patron saint of goldsmiths, and was rather a
pluralist, for he held the sees of London and Worcester together, for some
time. The church was called St. Dunstan in the East to distinguish it from the
other St. Dunstan in Fleet Street, called a in the West.” Hatton, in describing
: ^ church, says “ The windows and steeple are of the modern Gothic order

j very neat, but the pillars and arches within are of the Tuscan order, and the
• .III ro°f within appears flat, which and the walls of the nave are stone.” But it is

difficult from the subsequent description to identify this as a stone-vaulted
roof. It had evidently been rebuilt of smaller dimensions than the older
church, which Stow describes as “ fair and large of an ancient building,”
as extensive foundations were discovered when the present church was built.
This last rebuilding seems to have been almost a necessity, for the roof had
pushed out the walls seven inches from the perpendicular, and although
iron ties were employed, the setdement still increased, and there was no help for it but to take
it down altogether.

Wren’s tower and spire (Plate L.) was left, and is a singularly light and graceful com-

SLADE

library.

147

position which a little more attention to good detail would have made perfefl. The idea is of
course not original; allusion has already been made to the old church of St. Mary-le-Bow,
which was still fresh in men’s memories, but there is no evidence that Wren ever saw Newcastle
or St. Giles Edinburgh, and the spire standing on these four angle buttresses flanked by the
lofty pinnacles, and so beautifully proportioned to the tower, is really one of Wren’s
masterpieces of constructive skill.

There is an anecdote often told about this spire which perhaps may bear re-telling
here. A dreadful hurricane swept over London and did an infinity of damage to the newly-
built metropolis, and when Wren was told of the damage he immediately said, “ Not to St.
Dunstan’s, I am quite sure ” (Elmes’s “ Life of Wren,” page 487).

ST. MARY ALDERMARY,

WITH ST. THOMAS THE APOSTLE.

At first sight it is somewhat difficult to realize
that this church could possibly be from the hand of
Wren ; it is so unlike anything else that he ever
did in the City, and the difference is more notice¬
able since recent alterations have invested it, exter¬
nally, with a character not quite in accordance
with his usual style when designing Gothic work.
One has but to compare the present detail with the
towers of St. Michael Cornhill and St. Dunstan
in the East, or with his reputed work at St.
Alban Wood Street, to recognize at once that
parapets, strings, buttresses, plinths, and window-heads, have been altered more in conformity
with the style of the fifteenth century than with that of the closing years of the seventeenth. The
modern restorer has thought fit to execute the external repairs to the stonework in accordance
with his own idea of the style of that period, rather than as Wren left them, and has extended
this process to the interior also, replacing the woodwork, which was in Wren s usual style, with
work of an earlier type. In one sense the church has suffered in this process, for however
excellent of its kind the work may be, its historical value has disappeared, and one must
go elsewhere to see how Wren treated Gothic detail, when, owing to peculiar circumstances,
he had to eredt buildings in a style at once repugnant to his taste and at variance with
his practice. He could give general form and outline as he has done, and well done,
here and elsewhere, but in the very important matter of detail he is painfully wanting.

Alterations of thoroughfares have brought this church into a prominence which in olden
time it never possessed. Situated on the east side of Bow Lane, it was complete y surroun

148

by houses ; Watling Street on the north, and Little St. Thomas Lane on the south, must have
completely hidden it from view, except on the west, where it faced Bow Lane. Formerly
there was only a narrow alley which skirted the churchyard on the south and east, but now it
dominates one of the most crowded and busiest spots for traffic, to be found in the City, at the
point of junction of Queen Victoria Street, Mansion House Street, and Cannon Street, opposite
the station of the Metropolitan Railway. It was a happy accident in the formation of these
important thoroughfares, that this church, instead of being at right angles to, or parallel to
them, should cut obliquely into the line, enhancing the picturesque appearance both of
the church and its fine tower.

The name of Aldermary is due to the faCt that when London was just beginning to
outgrow the limits of the first Roman wall, this parish was founded beyond it, to the
west. Afterwards, as houses and inhabitants increased, another church was built and dedicated
to St. Mary (this was St. Mary-le-Bow), and to distinguish it, the earlier one was called
Aldermary, or the Older Mary church. What this church was like previous to the com¬
mencement of the sixteenth century we do not know, but it was removed to give place to a
“newe and very faire church,” as Stow describes it. The church had been rebuilt not long
before Stow’s time by Sir Henry Kebyll, or Keeble, grocer, and Lord Mayor in 1 5 1 1 , who left it
unfinished at his death in 1518; unfinished, that is, only so far as the tower was concerned,
and this was taken in hand by William Rodoway, who, dying in 1626, a Mr. Richard Pierson,
“ towards the better and more beautiful building of this steeple gave 200 marks,” conditionally
that the tower thus built should <c follow its ancient pattern, and go forward and be finished
according to the foundation of it laid one hundred and twenty years since by Sir Henry
Keeble.” But the “newe and very faire church” of Stow was terribly injured in the Great
Fire, and another benefactor, one Henry Rogers, came forward, who, “ affe&ed by the almost
irreparable loss of religious edifices, and actuated by sincere motives of piety,” gave JT 5,000
towards rebuilding it, conditionally (again) on its being a copy of the old one, and this
faCt explains why Wren built it in the Gothic style. Of the church before the Fire, portions
still exist in the present fabric which was reared exadtly on the walls of the older, and the
plan shows it to be an example of what some of the larger churches of the mediaeval city
were like. In many cases the aisles were prolonged to the east, and finished on the same line
as the east walls of the chancels, but here, at St. Mary’s, the chancel projects beyond the aisles,
and is curious from the east wall being anything but a right angle to the north or south walls.
The position of the tower at the south-west corner being only partly engaged in the south
aisle is another departure from the usual plan. The tower at the present time shows traces of
three rebuildings ; first in the lowest stage internally, in the door to the staircase turret, and
also in the Caen stone ashlaring; secondly, in the intermediate stage there are traces of the
work between 1626 and 1632 ; lastly, the upper stage and belfry are Wren’s additions. The
late Mr. Whichcord discovered that the traceried heads of the windows in the south aisle were
worked in Caen stone, and dated before the Great Fire. The interior (Plate LI.) is very fine,
both for size and effeCt, the arcade of six arches being particularly noble. These arches are
evidently on the exaCt lines of the old church, and it is only when one comes to examine the
caps, bases, and mouldings that one sees they are not fifteenth but seventeenth century work.
The most striking feature of the interior is the fan vaulting to both nave and aisles, and

r49

the question at once arises, was the old church vaulted in a similar m ,

Should Wren have designed a form of roofing most th n0t

used plaster) unless it were to follow the original? It is impossible to say; "were

common enough at the penod when Keeble built the church, for there are numerous instances
especially in Norfolk of Umber-roofs earned by a fan springer in oak, and the old church nJ
have had such a roof. This example of Wren’s work is certainly unique, for the fan vaulting
carnes a curious shallow, or ‘ saucer dome in the centre of each compartment in the nave
surrounded by a boldly moulded cornice, which in the aisles is changed into wreath work’
while the surfaces of both the domes and vaults are covered with tracery panels. The roof-
over the last bay of the chancel is barrel vaulted, with a four centred arch, also covered with
small tracery panels. Another departure from precedent is observable in the spandrels of the
main arcade, which have some fine scroll panels with shields (differing in design), also executed
in plaster, the top portion forming a small bracket, carrying the slender vaulting shafts. The
shields bear the arms of the See of Canterbury, Henry Rogers, etc. The clerestory is lofty and
well developed, but there is a blank look about it, caused by the large space left between the
sill of the window and the moulded string below. The windows throughout have the ordinary
fifteenth century tracery, while those at the east and west ends are super-mullioned, and the
whole of them are now filled with stained glass, with figure subj efts— rather dark and heavy.
Some years ago, the north aisle being somewhat dark, on account of the contiguity of houses in
Watling Street, the ingenious device of turning the shallow domes of the vaulting on that side
into skylights was adopted ; it is needless to say that these now no longer exist. When the
houses were removed, a crypt was discovered some 50 feet long by ic feet wide, divided into
five bays, but whether this had been the crypt under an additional aisle on the north side,
or was one of those undercrofts or vaulted cellars common under old houses, it is impossible
now to say. It was discovered in 1835, and is described in the tc Gentleman’s Magazine.”

The internal woodwork, of Wren’s time, including the altar-piece, west gallery, organ
case and pewing, has all gone, and its place is now occupied by modern work. A new screen
of an early type, in oak, has been eredted across the nave, two bays from the west, leaving that
part of the church free, and unencumbered by seats. The pulpit has lost its sounding board,
but there is still preserved a very quaint oak sword-rest now fixed against one of the pillars.
The font, now placed in the north aisle at the west end, stands on a pedestal which looks
earlier than Wren’s time. It is inscribed, “ Dutton Seaman generos’, natus in hac parochia,
anno Salut. 1627 ac in ejusdem ecclesia renatus, hoc baptisterion Nov. 1682 lubens dedit.”

The pavement of the church is now entirely of modern tiles ; the old pavement, which
was of coarse grey marble in small squares, and was probably the original, was like that in
Christ Church Newgate Street. The old altar was of marble, and was inscribed tc Edvardus
Watts Merc : Lond : ” there were also some remains of armorial glass.

Externally the church has been entirely re-cased in new stone, and parapets and buttresses
have been added. The tower has been left much as it was, and is, in its way, almost as fine
as St. Michael Cornhill, the corner pinnacles being carried well up, and terminating with ogee
tops and finials, but it has no intermediate pinnacles like St. Michaels ; its total height is 135
feet. The dimensions of the church are, length 100 feet, breadth 63 feet, height 45 feet.
In the “ Parentalia ” and in Elme’s “ Life of Wren,” the date of the finishing of this church

CL<L

r5°

is given as 1711, but it had been built and opened 1681-1682. With all its faults it is still a
grand church, and one rejoices to think that Sir Henry Keeble’s noble work still survives in
substance, and that he well deserves the words of eulogy inscribed on his tomb :

“ A famous worthy knight
Which did this Aldermary Church
Ereft and set upright.”

Before the alterations in the interior, which were mainly completed in 1876, there was a
dwarf screen marking the division of nave and chancel, which consisted only of an additional
panel added to the height of the pewing ; this was of pierced scroll work, and the two ends
which faced the central passage were surmounted by the Lion and Unicorn.

With regard to the discrepancy of dates in Elme’s “ Life of Wren, and the inscription
set up in the church, there is a curious passage in Hatton s “ New View which throws
a little light upon it, as follows : — <£ The church was finished, anno 1682, and the steeple
about the year 1701, built at the public charge, with money arising from the coal duty, and
was beautified, mostly paved, and a curious vault made in 1705. Could this mean that the
plaster vaulting as we now see it was not made until 1705 ?

Of the parish church of St. Thomas the Apostle, which was not rebuilt after the Fire,
little is known ; Stow’s description is very meagre, “ a proper church, but monuments of
antiquity be there none, except some arms in the windows.” The parish was annexed to
St. Mary Aldermary, and since the most regrettable destruction of St. Antholin’s (with St.
John upon Walbrook) in 1875, the present church does duty for all four parishes, and the
lectures formerly given at St. Antholin’s are now delivered here.

THE TOWER OF ST. MICHAEL CORNHILL.

Although the church, to which this superb tower forms such a splendid addition, was finished
in 1672 (see page 39 ante), it was not until nearly fifty years afterwards (1721) that the
finishing strokes were put to the fabric, and the tower completed. It is curious that
Wren should have designed it in the mediaeval style, and it has been said by some to be a
copy of the Magdalen Tower Oxford ; but beyond the fact that it is a tower, and has
four lofty pinnacles, there is no resemblance whatever. It is far more probable that Wren
wished to revive the departed glories of the old tower of St. Michael, which had possessed
similar lofty pinnacles, and had perished in the flames. This fact may have influenced him in
adding to a building in the Italian style a tower in one totally different. It is a bold
and vigorous design (Plate LII.), and that the hand of this grand nonagenarian had not lost
its cunning, and that up to the very brink of the grave, in his ninety-second year, he was still
in possession of all his faculties, is undeniably proved by the existence of the tower of
St. Michael Cornhill.

S. MICHAEL. CORN HILL
the tower.

ST. MARTIN IN THE FIELDS.

One of the greatest improvements ever
made within the metropolitan area was
the formation of Trafalgar Square, and
the consequent throwing open to view of
this very fine church, with its grand
portico. It is difficult now to realize the
very different aspeft the church presented
when it was hemmed in, in the narrow
lane named after it, and which came
down as far as the Strand, opposite to
Northumberland House. The removal of the Royal Mews led up to the idea of this improve¬
ment, and soon afterwards numberless courts and alleys were swept away, and Pall Mall was
brought into the Strand by the formation and enlargement of Cockspur and Duncannon
Streets. Although Lord Palmerston’s famous dictum, that it was “ the finest site in Europe ”
may be an exaggeration, it is nevertheless a fine site, and the pity is, that with the
exception of St. Martin's Church, the surrounding buildings should be so poor and unworthy
of it. The first foundation of a church on the site of the present one is unknown. Originally
it undoubtedly belonged to St. Margaret’s Westminster, a huge parish coterminous with the
limits of the ancient borough of Westminster, and may at first have been only a small chapelry,
built, some say, by the abbot and convent of the abbey contiguous to their property, called
the Convent Garden (now corrupted to Covent Garden). We know that in 1222 it was in
existence, because of one of those ecclesiastical disputes so constantly arising from the vexed
question of jurisdiction between the great monasteries and the bishops. In this case the
Bishop of London claimed his rights, while the abbot and convent stoutly defended theirs, and
the matter in dispute was referred to arbitrators, who were the Bishops of Winchester and
Salisbury and the Priors of Merton and Dunstable; the decision was against the bishop’s
claim. St. Martin’s was a vicarage previous to 1363, and was in the patronage of the abbey,
from whom Mary conveyed it to the Bishop of London and his successors. The old church
had become so ruinous that in 1721 it was decided to rebuild it, and Divtne Service was
performed for the last time within its walls on June nth. The foundation stone of the
present building was laid March 19th, 1722, and a temporary church, or tabernacle, described
as “ neat and commodious,” was eroded for the congregation. James Gibbs was the architect
of the new struaure, and the total cost was about £37>°°°- The Pakce °{ ^ James being
within the parish, George I. was a contributor to the fund for the ereaion of the church, and
he also gave £1,500 for an organ. It was one of those rare cases where the churchwardens had
more money than they wanted, and for this reason they had to refuse a donation of £500
from a lady! The last stone of the spire was laid in December, '724- The inscription on
the portico is “ D. sacram TEdem S. Martini Parochiani extru, fee. MDCCXXVI. and it was

consecrated on Odtober 20th in that year. , . „ % *

St. Martin, Bishop of Tours (a very popular saint both here and in France),

r52

the church is dedicated, was a remarkable man in many ways. Originally a Roman soldier,
and afterwards a military tribune, he lived at that period when the old Roman Empire was
fast breaking up, and its legions, instead of being aggressors, had to become defenders of
their country against the countless hordes of barbarians that threatened its existence. He was
baptized at the age of eighteen, and remained in the army two years afterwards, leaving it,
much to the chagrin of the Emperor Julian, at a very critical period, in a.d. 358. His career,
which after this was one long struggle against the Arians, ended a.d. 401. One of the
noblest churches in Christendom arose over the spot where he was interred in Tours, and his
shrine was visited by innumerable pilgrims. During the Reign of Terror in 1793 the church
was entirely destroyed, and streets now occupy its site, but its twin western towers still stand
on opposite sides of the thoroughfare. Of late years the crypt which contained his stone
coffin has been discovered, together with the empty coffin, and a new church has been built
over it. His relics were dispersed in 1793, and only a skull and thigh-bone are now preserved
in the Cathedral of St. Gatien, at Tours. The intercourse which existed between the ancient
churches of Gaul and Britain explains the extreme antiquity of St. Martin’s Church at
Canterbury. In London, besides the church of St. Martin in the Fields, there were six
others dedicated to him, St. Martin-le-Grand, St. Martin Ludgate, St. Martin Outwich,
St. Martin Pomary, St. Martin Orgar, and St. Martin Vintry. Of these only St. Martin
Ludgate and St. Martin in the Fields now remain.

About the time that Gibbs rebuilt this church it was the prevalent custom to raise the
floor of new churches well above the ground. All Hawksmoor’s churches are thus raised on
vaults, and Gibbs, in building that of St. Martin and St. Mary-le-Strand, followed this course. It
may be that the stru&ures thereby gained increased dignity, but the filling of these vaults with
human remains, and piling the lead coffins one on another in stacks, was truly a horrible
custom. The employment of this vaulted substructure led to the use of broad flights of stone
steps to the higher level, and these necessitated the columned portico, which is never to be
found in Wren’s churches, the cathedral excepted. Here one would naturally expect to find
it, but in this solitary case it is no copy of the portico and pediment of a heathen temple.
Good as the western portico of St. Martin’s unquestionably is, it is but an adaptation of
the Pantheon, or of the Baths of Agrippa at Rome. In all the London churches built in the
closely following years, we find that their architects had such magnificent ideas of vestibules,
porticoes, and other adjuncts to the main building, that very often one-third of the whole area
is occupied by them. A glance at the plan of St. Martin’s will show this : there is first the
grand portico, then the square block of the tower and spire, with its circular vestibule flanked
on each side by two other vestibules, and finally, as if this were not enough, we find large
vestibules at the east end again.

The internal effeCf of the church is undoubtedly very fine, from its spaciousness, lightness,
and ornamental treatment (Plate LIV.), but it has hardly the dignity of Wren’s work. It is
divided into nave and aisles by a range of four Corinthian columns and two pilasters on each
side, standing on tall pedestals of the same height as the original pewing. Each column
supports a block entablature, and from this springs a semi-elliptical ceiling over the nave.
The vault is pierced transversely, above the columns, by semi-circular arches springing from
column to column. At the back of the block entablatures semi-circular arches are thrown over

*53

the aisles, and received on consoles on the outer walls, and, by the interseftion of these,
pendentives are formed, carrying small shallow domes over the galleries.

The nave terminates eastwards in two quadrants of circles on each side, and beyond is
the altar recess, which has a semi-elliptical vault, parallel to the nave vault. The galleries
extend round the north, south, and west sides, and are continued behind the quadrants at the
east end of the nave, where they form private apartments, or pews, which communicate with the
church by windows, and
have all the appearance of
private boxes. This in
fad they formerly were,
one being the private pew
of the Duke of Northum¬
berland, in which the
glazed sash could be raised
or lowered at pleasure ;
these sashes have now been
removed. At the west end
there is an upper gallery,
in which the organ was placed. The ceiling is richly panelled, and decorated with raised
plaster-work, scarcely of an ecclesiastical charader, although cherubs and clouds are largely
introduced ; the clouds being decidedly of the “ pancake ” variety. The old arrangements at
the east end have been altered ; the chancel has been seated for a choir, and the altar has been
raised live steps above the nave. The wrought-iron altar-rail remains, but the reredos has
entirely lost its original charader. In the east window some fairly good modern glass is to
be found, and the church is now lighted by eledric light.

One of the chief defeds in this otherwise line interior is that the stately colonnade is
divided by the gallery front, which is built in half way up each column, and cuts them in two.
Although most of his churches were built to contain galleries, Wren was only guilty of thus
dividing his column in one or two cases, but his successors invariably did so. The pulpit,
although finely carved, lacks the beauty of the earlier ones, and the font is plain and large.
The vestry contained some good portraits of redors, commencing 1670, and including
Tenison and Lamplugh, archbishops; Lloyd, Green, and Pearce, bishops; and one of Gibbs
himself. Externally the church is well built of Portland stone; the spire is graceful, but its
position sadly interferes with the fine portico. (Plate LIII.)

There is a fine peal of bells, which were recast in 1726, at a cost of £1,264. 18 s. 3^.
They are the first to proclaim great naval vidories to Londoners, and in the days when
“ evening papers’ special editions ” were not, their joyous clang was anxiously listened for in
times of war The services in this chnrch were daily at 7 «.m. and 5 P-n>. on Wednesdays
and Fridays, and on holydays an additional service was held at 10 a.m. The old church
contained some very fine monuments, and it is strange that so few have been preserved, seeing
that they were not destroyed by fire. Nicholas Stone, the designer and sculptor of most of
the best monuments during the reigns of James and Charles I. was buried here.

R R

ST. MARY-LE-STRAND.

Although the present building, of which Gibbs was
the architect, was one of the fifty new churches ordered
to be built in certain populous localities, it represents
a greater antiquity ; for there had been an ancient
church, not exadtly on the same site, but at no great
distance from it. Stow calls it “ the parish church of
the Nativity of our Lady and of the Holy Innocents of the Strand,” and further states that it
was “ also known to some as the church of St. Ursula, from a brotherhood kept there.”

Nearly the whole of the parish belonging to this church, together with the church itself
and its churchyard, Chester’s or Strand Inn and Worcester’s Inn (belonging to the bishop of
that see), and the tenements annexed, were all destroyed by the Protestor Somerset, about
the year 1549, and upon the levelled ground he built his stately palace, called Somerset House.
The parishioners being thus deprived of their church had to go elsewhere, a state of affairs that
lasted until 1713, when, the neighbourhood having in the meanwhile become more populous,
one of the first duties of the commissioners was to assign a new district or parish, and build a
church, to be named after the old church of St. Mary.

The site chosen was in the widest part of the Strand, nearly opposite Somerset House,
where the maypole, and in much earlier times a stone cross, had stood. The maypole was
moved a little further westward, where it had but a short existence, for it was abolished five
years afterwards. Sir Isaac Newton obtained possession of it from the inhabitants, and it
found its way to Wanstead Park, where it became the support or stand for a large telescope.

The new church, of which the foundation stone was laid in 1714, was consecrated on
January 1st, 1723. Like Gibbs’ work generally, it is almost pedantic in its close adherence
to the rules of classic art, and lacks the masculine vigour of Hawksmoor. It is a beautiful
church, perhaps finer externally than internally, and its happy contiguity to Somerset House,
together with its own commanding position, render it one of the most prominent and best
seen of all the London churches, and it would be the grossest a£t of vandalism to remove it ;
yet unhappily more than one attempt to do so has been made. In plan it is a parallelo¬
gram, some 64 feet in length by 38 feet in width. The chancel, better developed in this than
in many contemporary buildings, terminates eastward in an apse, and is flanked on each side,
north and south, by two rather diminutive vestries. The arrangement at the west end is
peculiar, for the tower is considerably broader from north to south than from east to west,
and there are vestibules on each side (similar to the vestries at the other end), in one of which
is placed the staircase giving access to the west gallery. The west door is preceded by a semi¬
circular porch or peristyle of Ionic columns. The floor of the church is well elevated above

x55

the street level, and a handsome flight of stone steps leads up to it, following the same lines as
the porch.

Externally the church is of two orders — Ionic below and Corinthian above (Plate LV.).
Both have their proper entablature, the latter being finished on the north and south sides with
alternate angular and circular pediments, and with a stone balustrade and vases, continued all
round the building. The spaces between the columns on the upper stage have well-designed
and well-proportioned windows, while the lower stage has semi-circular niches and no openings
but to the vestibules, so as to shut out the sound of the street traffic as much as possible. The
lower entablature is carried round the porch, which is finished by rather a flat half-domed
top, carrying an urn. Originally a statue of Queen Anne stood on this half dome, but the
statue was removed and the urn substituted not long after its eredtion. There is a tradition
that this statue was again set up at Queen’s Gate, Westminster, and in this new position was
placed against the wall to conceal the fadt that it was unfinished, the back being left in the
rough only. A very sad accident, which led to fatal results, happened in connexion with
this church at the proclamation of peace by the heralds in 1802. Some people were on the
roof of the church, and leaning on the parapet, when one of the vases gave way in consequence
of improper dowelling, and fell on the heads of those below, killing two outright, and two
others eventually succumbing to their injuries. When officers were sent up to arrest him,
the author of the catastrophe was found to have fainted from horror. The tower, which is
shown so completely in the plate that a detailed description is unnecessary, has a very imposing
appearance, when viewed from either the east or west, but the reverse when seen from the
north or south, as it is so much narrower on these sides. For this defedf Gibbs is scarcely
responsible, as when he designed the church it was intended to have a small western turret
only, and a grand monumental column, 250 feet high, surmounted with a statue of Queen
Anne, was to have been eredted some eighty feet in front. The stone was adtually obtained
for this, but the queen died, and the commissioners fell back upon a design for a steeple to
the church, and although the building had already advanced some twenty feet out of the
ground, Gibbs had to work his existing walls in so as to carry the steeple.

Considering the richness of the architedture employed externally, the interior is disap¬
pointing. The main ceiling is an ellipse, and is covered with small panels or coffers, groined
over the windows, while the chancel ceiling, which is lower, is a semi-circle in sedtion. The
double order is also used internally, for the walls are in two divisions, and Corinthian pilasters,
with Composite ones above, divide the church into bays, the lower parts of which are left blank,
while the windows occupy the higher. The design of the entrance to the chancel is pleasing ;
it has coupled columns supporting a pediment, with the royal arms. The interior has been
re-arranged, the high pewing lowered, and the pulpit, originally placed in front of the chancel
arch, moved to one side. Gibbs’ estimate for this church was ^8,997, but the total cost
amounted to ^16,341 is. 2 d.

ST. GILES IN THE FIELDS.

This ancient parish was formerly very extensive, and originally a chapel stood near to the
position now occupied by the present church, and belonging to a hospital for lepers founded
by Matilda, Queen of England, wife of Henry I., and this hospital was very properly placed
far away in the fields, remote from any human habitation. It would be difficult to trace
these fields now, although we may regard Lincoln’s Inn Fields, which are in the parish, as a
comparatively modern substitute for some part of them. The ancient chapel became in time
the nucleus of a parish church, but no mention can be found of a rector until some time after
the dissolution of the religious houses. It appears that the old chapel fell into utter decay,
and was rebuilt by subscription, Lady Alice Dudley being a large contributor. This was in
1623, but the chapel again becoming ruinous was entirely rebuilt, about 1719, by Henry
Flitcroft, architect, a petition having been presented to the House of Commons, praying that
it might be one of the fifty new churches, as from the number of poor in the parish it would be
impossible ever to raise a sufficient sum for the purpose unless aided by Parliament. This petition
was opposed in the Flouse of Lords, on technical grounds, by the Archbishop of York and five
bishops, with eleven temporal lords, but it seems ultimately to have passed. In the journals of
the House of Commons Mr. Hawksmoor is mentioned as having expended ^8,605 7 s. 2d . on
this church, but this must be an error, and refers to St. George Bloomsbury, which, as we
have seen, was divided off from this parish. Neither the interior or exterior are good, except
in the matter of solidity, but the spire (Plate LVI.) has some claim to both originality and
gracefulness of outline. It has been called a poor copy of St. Martin in the Fields, and there

is a certain amount of
similarity in the belfry
stage and the position of
the clock ; but the next
stage, an octagonal one,
with Ionic columns at
the angles, surmounted
by a balustrade and vases,
is richer than St. Martin;
the octagonal pyramidal
spire has five projecting
bands, and is without
the circular openings of the latter. The curious western gate to the churchyard was a
comparatively recent addition, but the carving of the Resurrection in the tympanum, which
reminds one somewhat of a similar one at St. Stephen Coleman Street, was executed in 1687.

Plate LV1.

Plate LVII.

MONEY LENT.;;

si m a 0 b.

CHRIST CHURCH, SPITALFI ELDS

VIEW OF TH E WEST END.

1 57

In the churchyard is interred the body of Richard Penderel, or Pendrell, of Boscobel who
was instrumental in saving the life of Charles II. after “ Worcester’s crowning fight.” One of
the tombs out of the old church, that of Lady Frances Kniveton, has been preserved but has
been deprived of its canopy. The church was remarkable for some seventeenth-century
stained glass with which several of its windows were filled.

The only really good specimen of eighteenth-century work to be seen in the church is
the fine wrought-iron altar rail. The plan is very similar to that of St. Martin in the Fields.

CHRIST CHURCH SPITALFIELDS.

The enormous growth of
population beyond the limits
of the City, especially to¬
wards the north and east,
necessitated new parishes
being formed, out of the
huge and unwieldy old
parish of Stepney, and this
districft of Spitalfields was
one of the first to be taken
in hand by the Commissioners under the Add for building fifty new churches. The revocation
of the Edidl of Nantes contributed largely to this increase by compelling thousands of French
protestants, especially silk weavers, to fly from a country exposed to the horrors of the
“ Dragonades,” and other mild “persuasives” of the Most Christian King Louis XIV. and his
uncrowned consort, Madame de Maintenon. There had been in old times a small church and
hospital in this locality, which had given the name to the adjacent fields, but it had long fallen
to decay, and the fields were built over when, in 1715, the first stone of this fine church
was laid, Nicholas Hawksmoor being the architect. Both for its plan and its architecture this
church is unique. (Plates LVII. and LVIII.) It is unlike any building of Wren’s, although from
Hawksmoor’s association with him, one would have looked for some similarity, such as usually
exists between the works of master and pupil. The chief peculiarity in the plan is the amount
of space devoted to vestibules, lobbies, staircases, and vestries, and the unusual distribution of the
columns, for although possessing nave and aisles, the colonnades dividing these are not treated
continuously, either as regards the shape of the columns, or the spaces, both the east and west
bays being much the narrower. Two piers are introduced on each side to vary the monotony
of the single columns. These piers have pilasters attached to the north and south sides, their
use not being very apparent, as they carry nothing beyond a smaller pilaster on the side of

s s

*58

the nave ; this runs up to the flat ceiling, which, owing to its arrangement of panels, does not
need support. The columns are of the Composite order on high bases, carry an entablature at
right angles to the walls, a fashion introduced by Wren at St. James Piccadilly, but which is
more pleasingly carried out here by his pupil. From these entablatures spring the arches, which
have square coffered soffites ; the arched ceilings of the aisles, which follow the same curve, are
divided into hexagonal panels with circular flowers in each, an arrangement which gives to the
arcade a deeply recessed appearance, and is certainly a very pleasing feature. The arcade has
boldly moulded key-stones, and a moulded cornice, above which is the clerestory. The ceiling
is very simple, being divided centrally into seven large panels, with smaller ones on each side,
separated by flat bands of ornament, while circular flowers decorate the centre of each. The
galleries, with the exception of the west one, have been removed, and this necessarily gives an
unmeaning look to the double tier of side windows ; a bad effeCt, much minimized by the upper
range being circular. The most extraordinary departure from precedent consists in continuing
the colonnade across the east and west ends, that at the west being broken in the centre
by the introdu&ion of the organ, while at the east end the entablature is carried across and
this screen of columns produces an effedfc which can only be described as “ scenic.” The
chancel, behind this screen, is divided into two portions, the first of which has curved sides,
narrowing it to a square recess, and all this part of the church which should be the richest,
is perfectly plain, with a flat plaster ceiling. The east window is of the Venetian type, and
above this there is a semi-circular one. Internally the church was much altered many years
ago, when the seats were lowered, and the galleries removed, by the late Ewan Christian, and
although it can rarely be said with regard to churches of this type that the removal of their
galleries is an improvement, in this case it certainly was so. The old pulpit remains, but has
been lowered, and the sounding board is now suspended ; the old brass branches have been
utilized for gas lights. Externally, the same extraordinary departure from all recognized rules
makes this church very difficult to describe. The curious portico with its arched top, the extra
width given to the east and west sides of the tower, which are prolonged so as to stand in
advance of the side walls, and are brought back again to a square belfry stage by inverted plain
curved trusses, and the small arcaded stage supporting the broached oCtagonal spire, almost
Norman in outline, are features which combined cause Christ Church Spitalfields to stand
alone as a monument of architectural eccentricity; it is, after all, an eccentricity which pleases.
The estimate for this church was ,£13,570, but the aCtual cost was £19,4.18 31. 6 d.

Plate LX.

.. GEORGE, BLOOMSBURY

INTERIOR VIEW.

ST. GEORGE BLOOMSBURY.

The population of the old parish of St. Giles in the Fields
having enormously increased during the closing years of the
seventeenth century and the commencement of the eighteenth,
it was thought advisable to divide it, and the more fashionable
portion, which included Bloomsbury Square, and Bedford and
Montague Houses, with the fields to the north and east,
(now covered by squares and streets,) was taken out of St.
Giles, a separate parish was formed, and a church built by
Hawksmoor, which in compliment to the reigning sovereign
was dedicated to St. George. The site was originally a small
court called Plough Yard, which was purchased of Lady
Rachel Russell, the devoted wife and widow of Lord William
Russell, and only daughter of Wriothesly, Earl of
Southampton. By her marriage into the Russell family she

conveyed all her possessions in the manor of Bloomsbury to
the present ducal house of Bedford. St. George was one of
the fifty new churches ereCted after the Fire, and, contrary to the usual plan in England, its
greatest length is from north to south, and the altar, originally designed to be placed in the
eastern apse, occupies a more convenient position against the north wall. (Plate LX.)
The plan, like others of Hawksmoor’s, is difficult to describe, but briefly it may be

said to consist of a square atrium, having aisles on the north and south sides, an apse on

the east, and on the west a tower. The northern aisle which is wider than the south, has
another aisle opening out of it on the north side, while the southern is preceded by a fine
columned portico with a flight of steps ascending to it. These aisles are separated from the
square atrium in the centre, by coupled columns and wall pilasters on each side, supporting
entablatures, from which spring elliptical arches having carved key-stones, and above these arches
is a deeply moulded and enriched cornice carried all round the atrium. Above this again is

a range of clerestory windows, five on the north and south sides, and two only on the east and

west. The ceiling over this central part is flat, but is highly enriched with sunk panels having
an abundance of ornament. The east and west sides of the atrium are treated with four
smaller semi-circular arched recesses on each side, and wider ones with elliptical arches, opening
respectively into the eastern apse and the tower, and there is a double tier of circular headed
windows. The entablature of the columns is also carried round the square piers which ivi
the recesses. The treatment of the northernmost aisle is different, for the columns whic
coupled parallel to the atrium, are in this case coupled at right angles to it, and form two groups
of columns and their attendant pilasters, which gives a greater depth to the elliptical arc
springing from them, while following the same curve as the first arch. The a tar is p ac
front of a semi- circular niche flanked by columns with block entablatures carrying an angu ar
pediment ; the whole forming a kind of baldacchino. The internal fittings of oak have been

i6o

much altered, and the seats lowered, and the cards of the occupiers, placed on the rails,
have a very odd look. The organ is now placed on the north-western side, where it is very
much cramped. The chancel has been arranged for a choir, and the altar well elevated by
steps. The pulpit has been much lowered, and now stands against the north-east columns
of the atrium. The galleries have all been removed.

The finest portion of this church is undoubtedly the portico, but the absence of any carving
in the pediment, detracts from its otherwise stately effeCt. (Plate LIX.) The most curious
feature is the upper stage of the spire, which has four small porticos with their pediments stuck
against each of the sides of a square frustrum, which is ornamented, above the pediments, with
swags of foliage and crowns. Lions and unicorns, in the most strange and unnatural positions
were formerly placed at each corner of the square-stepped pyramid of diminishing steps with
which the upper portion or spire is formed ; this pyramid is truncated at the top, and carries a
circular enriched pedestal on which stands King George I. in solitary state, a lightning conductor
decorating the top of his head ! The lions and unicorns, which always had the appearance of
having been worsted in a struggle with the statue and rolled down the steps, have been removed.

The other external parts of the church have a heavy appearance. Its cost was ^9,793,
and it was consecrated in 1731, but was finished long before that.

ST. MARY WOOLNOTH,

WITH ST. MARY WOOLCHURCH HAUGH (OR HAW).

Both these churches, it is said, derived their distinguishing
name from their proximity to the place where wool was
weighed, and in the absence of a more satisfactory derivation
the statement may be accepted for what it is worth. St. Mary
Woolnoth was rebuilt after the Fire, but not St. Mary Wool-
church, the site of which was somewhere about the position of
the Mansion House. The formation of King William Street
for a better approach to London Bridge brought this church
into a prominence which it never before possessed, and the position at the angle of Lombard
Street and the wide new thoroughfare, certainly gives it a picturesque appearance, which is
enhanced by the decidedly original treatment of the upper part of the tower.

In the “ Parentalia,” page 315, there is the following note: “St. Mary Woolnoth
church, situated on the south side of Lombard Street, was repaired in 1677, the sides, the roof,
and part of the ends having been damnified by the Great Fire; the steeple was old and
wanted rebuilding, which, together with the whole church, is now very substantially performed
by the ingenious and skilful architect, Mr. Nicholas Hawksmoor, who formerly was, and
continued for many years, a domestic clerk to the surveyor, and was afterwards employed by
him in the royal and other public works.”

i6i

From this paragraph we gather that the old church had been patched up. It was an
ancient fabric, which had been first rebuilt in i442 (the twentieth of Henry VI.) and altered
or almost entirely rebuilt, in 1620. The name of a recftor, John de Norton, occurs in 1368^
and Stow speaks of the church as “reasonable fair and large.” Malcolm gives us a few
particulars of what occurred immediately after the Fire. He says : “ the north wall fronting
Lombard Street and six feet of the east end were ereded, all the remainder of the walls of the
old church were left ruinous in order to render the interior fit for divine service as speedily as
possible; but the consequence of this haste became very visible before 1711, in which year the
parishioners were apprehensive of being buried by its fall.” Steps were at once taken to
rebuild it, and, commenced in 1716, it was completed about 1719. The plan of the interior
is nearly square, the western angles being canted off to form spiral stone staircases to the
galleries which formerly existed ; within this square is another, with twelve Corinthian fluted
columns arranged at the angles in groups of three, so as to give the appearance of coupled
columns at the corners. The columns carry an enriched entablature, and above this the
square is continued to form a clerestory, while on each of the four sides are large semi-circular
windows, from which the principal light
in the church is derived. The diameter
of these windows is equal to the inter-
columniation below ; the ceiling is flat,
and has one large panel, with quadrants
of circles at each corner, a heavy
moulding round, a rose in the centre,
and interlacing palm branches at the
angles. The height of this centre part
of the church is exactly the total width, wrought iron altar-rail.

which makes the proportion very

pleasing. The ceiling of the aisles or outer square is flat, but over the portion answering
to the chancel the panels are more highly enriched with mouldings and centre flowers. On
the east side is a shallow square recess, which is roofed over by an elliptical arch, springing
from plain piers, with an equally plain cornice, and the soffite of which is decorated with square
coffers and flowers. Within this recess stands the altar, under a lofty baldacchino formed
of twisted oak columns supporting a cornice and a segmental pediment, in advance of which
there is a canopy of wood carved like the tester of a bed, and with imitation tassels; the
whole reminding one of Bernini’s bronze baldacchino at St. Peter’s Rome. (Plate LXI.) The
two Tables of the Law are unusually large, and are placed over the altar under a divided curved
pediment, with a quantity of wreath work below. The mensa of the altar is of marble, and
the altar-rail is a very good specimen of wrought ironwork. The main cornice of the internal
area, or atrium, is broken on the east side to allow the introduction of a group of three cherubic
heads, which formerly supported the royal arms, but have now disappeared, their place eing
occupied by some stiffly carved wooden foliage in the shape of scroll work, springing from the
sides of a stepped Latin cross. In 1876 considerable alterations were made in the interior,
when the galleries on the north, south, and west sides were taken down, their fronts being
placed against the wall in a meaningless manner, only a small gallery over the west door being

T T

i6i

allowed to remain. The organ, which is in a fine case, and was formerly surmounted by
a Fame, now stands in the north-east angle of the outer square. The high pews have been
replaced by very low benches, and the eastern portion of the church, as far as the columns, is
seated for a choir. Some of the carved oak trusses which decorated the gallery front have been
used to ornament these choir seats in a very odd way (by turning them upside down), and a
very flaring pavement of mediaeval
tiles, with bands of stone and marble,
replaces the old stone paving. But
the most terrible alteration in the
interior is the colour cc decoration ”
so lavishly applied to the walls and
ceilings ; this is too extraordinary
for description, and makes one wish
to be temporarily ^ colour blind ”
and see the interior as it appears in
the very beautiful view (Plate LXI.).

Externally, the only elevation
originally seen was the north side
in Lombard Street, and on this
Hawksmoor expended considerable
ingenuity in giving us what he
considered a blank wall, for there
are no windows on this side in the
outer square. It may be described
as composed of three large semi¬
circular rusticated niches, each
standing on a lofty rusticated pedes¬
tal, relieved with blank recesses,
which are repeated in the intervals
below, between the niches. Under
the whole is a basement story with
openings corresponding to those
above. These niches are decorated
in their recesses with an Ionic order,
on a pedestal of its own, the top of front of organ.

its entablature being level with the

springing of each niche, and running through on each side so as to form an impost. The
north front is terminated by a block cornice, which runs round the building, and the central
part of the front is surrounded by a balustrade.

It was evidently thought that the south front would never be seen, and its poor appearance
is a lesson to architects never to lavish ornament on the “ show ” side only, for a new street
may be opened up and bring all their shortcomings into view. The very curious tower is
oblong, and rusticated to the level of the main cornice, above which is an unbroken pedestal

i63

for the support of six Composite columns on the past- uul ■ ,

i . r I , if , east and west sldes, and two on the north and

south, with a large belfry window m the centre. From this order rise two low towers pierced

wtth semi-circular headed openings, and conneded together with balustrades. The ^ doo^
is very insignificant and over It is a semi-circular window with a curved splay round it the
whole of the west front is more suggestive of a fortress or a prison than of a parish church.

The same false economy which caused Gibbs to use wood dowells at St. Mary-le-Strand
prevailed here, and much of the external stonework in cornices, balustrades, etc, is now
,n a very precarious condition. The living formerly belonged to the Nunnery of St. Helens
and was given by the Crown to the notorious Sir Martin Bowes (whose mansion adjoined the
church), the destroyer of all the splendid alabaster, royal and other tombs, and of i4o inlaid
brasses at Greyfriars. The services here were twice a day, morning and evening

Its commanding site and the value of the ground on which it stands have long marked this
church out for destruSion, which several attempts have been made to effed, but have
happily proved unsuccessful; it is, however, again in danger of demolition, this time by the
City Ele&rical Railway Company, who want the site for a station.

ST. ANNE LIMEHOUSE.

Hawksmoor was also the
archited of this church, the
parish having been formed out
of St. Dunstan Stepney, and
the church built in accord¬
ance with the Ad for build¬
ing fifty new churches. The
foundation stone was laid in
1712, before the death of
Queen Anne, and in compli¬
ment to her the church was
dedicated to St. Anne, but it
was not the first instance of
churches being named after
reigning monarchs. In King

James’s reign, two churches had been dedicated to St. James in London and the suburbs,
and in succeeding reigns the pradice became a common one. St. Anne s was completed in
1724, but was not consecrated until 1730; it betrays all Hawksmoor’s peculiarities, especially
in the abundance of vestibule room, and its eccentric planning. The interior is comparatively

modern, having lost all its old fittings by fire.

ST. LEONARD SHOREDITCH.

The present building was erected in 1735 on the site of a very ancient fabric, of which
mention is made in the reign of Henry II. A description of this former church and of
its then appearance is given in Hatton’s £C New View,” and it is there described as having four
aisles, “ which is one more than I have any where met with.” A panic took place on
the morning of Sunday, the 23rd of December, 1716, in consequence of the walls of the
church rending asunder with a frightful sound and a considerable quantity of mortar falling,
whereby many were injured. This led to a survey being at once made by Dance, who
pronounced the church dangerous, the pavement being eight feet lower than the street, and it
was soon after rebuilt by him. The elegant spire so prominently seen from the North London
Railway is so striking in its original treatment that it has been thought worthy of illustration
here (Plate LXII.). The east window contains some seventeenth-century glass from the
old church, which had been placed there by the parishioners, and, in Walker’s “ Sufferings of
the Clergy,” it formed the basis of an article of impeachment against the then vicar, Mr.
Squire, in 1642, for allowing a picture of the Virgin Mary to be set up in his church. His
reply was that there was no such picture ; the representation was that of St. John the Divine
in the scene of the Last Supper. In the old church was a very beautiful epitaph to William
Fremlin, a President of the Hon. East India Company, and a great benefadfor to the parish.
The concluding lines deserve recording ; he had been a great traveller in strange lands, and
had been marvellously preserved from shipwreck, returning home to die in his own native
parish, 1646 :

“ Rest, weary Traveller, a quiet repose
Suits well with aftive men, but chiefly those
Of whose unwearied works we truly say
They bear the Brunt and Burthen of the Day.

Such days in such a climate so well spent
As made the ‘ Precedent ’ a ‘ President.’

‘ Apres travaille. Repos.’ ”

ALL HALLOWS BARKING.

This church, which escaped the flames of 1666, and therefore does not come within the scope
of the present work, happens to preserve among its many quaint fittings some beautiful
specimens of seventeenth and eighteenth century art, both in wood carving and metal work.
Plate LXIII. shows three superb specimens of sword rests, that on the left commemorating
the mayoralty of Sir John Eyles, Lord Mayor 1726, bears four shields, the two at the foot
being his own arms and those of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers ; above these, in

Plate LX 1 1.

s LEONARD

the steeple

SHOREDITCH

ALLHALLOWS BARKING

SWORD RESTS.

i65

the centre, are the arms of the City of London, and uppermost are the royal arms. The
centre rest commemorates Slingsby Bethell, Lord Mayor i755, and Member for the City
who died 175 8 ; the arrangement of the coats-of-arms is similar to the above. Bethell
and the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers below, and the City and royal arms above.
The other rest, on the left hand, commemorates Sir Thomas Chitty, Lord Mayor 1759, and is
charged with the arms of Chitty, the Salters’ Company, and the City and royal arms ; all
three are surmounted by rather dilapidated gilt crowns. The plainest of the three is Sir John
Eyles , blit the loliage is heavier. Sir Thomas Chitty’s is the most elaborate, and is a beautiful
specimen of scroll work ; the foliage is similar in character to Slingsby Bethell’s, and this last is
the most beautiful of the three in design. Plate LXIV. is an admirable representation of the
font cover, one of the most beautiful specimens of wood carving in the City ; it is probably
by the hand of Grinling Gibbons, since the wreath work is identical with his, and the dove
surmounting the cover is carved very closely in imitation of nature. Beautiful as the work¬
manship undoubtedly is, as a design it is certainly more fitted to surmount a wedding cake
than a font. It has unfortunately been repeatedly painted since it was placed in this church in
1685. The church itself had a very narrow escape in the Great Fire, the porch and projecting
dial being actually consumed.

As pointed out in the Introduction, it is not within the scope of this work to give an
account of all the parish churches in the City of London. Some of them, of an earlier time
than those dealt with in its pages, were mercifully preserved from the awful Fire which laid
in the dust so many stately fabrics built to God’s honour and glory. These were, All Hallows
Barking, All Hallows London Wall, St. Bartholomew the Great and St. Bartholomew the Less
Smithfield, St. Andrew Undershaft, St. Giles Cripplegate, St. Helen and St. Botolph Bishopsgate,
St. Ethelburga Bishopsgate, St. Olave Hart Street, St. Martin Outwich, the nave of the Priory of
Austin Friars, St. Botolph Aldersgate, St. Botolph Aldgate, and St. Peter le Poer. Of these
some unfortunately were rebuilt at a later period, by men who brought about that decadence in
architecture which was so remarkable in the later half of the eighteenth century, while others
were entirely new strudures. St. Sepulchre Holborn was patched up and altered internally in
1670, but not by Wren, and amongst others rebuilt in a poor style are All Hallows Staining,
in 1675, Holy Trinity Minories, 1706, St. Botolph Bishopsgate, 1725, St. John Westminster,
17,7, St. George Hanover Square, I724, St. James Duke’s Place, 1727, St Catherine
Coleman, 1734, St. Botolph Aldgate, .741. All Hallows London Wall, 1765, St. Alphage
London Wall, 1777, St. Peter le Poer, 1789, St. Botolph Aldersgate, W9°, St. Martin
Ou3i, ,796, St. Dunstan in the East, tower and spire excepted, 1817 St. Bart holomew t e
Less, x823 and St. Dunstan in the West, 183,. It would be profitless * add o a list

,„„dy „ .f Tr,..

architecture durmg .the Georg.au pen ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ awaken fresh

!n°tet i“e monuments of art yet preserved to us in our great City, it will not have
been prepared in vain. Laus Deo. nFORGE H. BIRCH, F.S.A.

SLADE

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